


The Absent-Minded Altmer

by Keolah



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Adventure, Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny, Canon - Video Game, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-21
Updated: 2013-08-28
Packaged: 2017-11-26 06:54:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 58,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/647795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keolah/pseuds/Keolah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Keolah, the high elf mage, apparently took a wrong turn in Cyrodiil and wandered into Skyrim somehow. She doesn't think she did anything deserving of execution. Maybe she accidentally ate somebody's sweetroll?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Absent-Minded Altmer

Keolah woke slowly, jostled awake by the shaking of the cart and blinking blurrily up at the sky. She tried to brush her auburn hair out of her face, but found her hands bound. Frowning in confusion, she looked to the others in the cart with her. Three blond men, Nords most likely. 

"Finally awake, are you?" said one of the Nords. "Trying to cross the border, were you?" 

"Was I?" Keolah wondered. "Where am I?" 

"They must've hit you good on the head when they captured you. You walked right into that ambush, just like we did. Well, my name's Ralof, and you're in Skyrim. Not sure where they're taking us or where exactly on the road we are, though." 

"What am I doing in Skyrim?" Keolah said, frowning again. "Was I supposed to meet someone here? Do something? Or did I just get lost?" 

"You'd know that better than me," Ralof said. "Doesn't matter now, though. They're probably going to execute the lot of us." 

"Oh, well, that's not very pleasant," Keolah said. "Who is they, anyway?" 

"The Imperials, of course," Ralof explained. 

"Why would the Imperials want to execute us?" 

"You really don't know? We're rebels. Stormcloaks, they call us. You are in the presence of Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak himself." He inclined his head toward the man at Keolah's right, the only one of them who was gagged. 

"Who?" Keolah said, raising an eyebrow. 

"I'd have thought even down south they've have heard of the war going on up here," Ralof said. 

"I'm not with these rebels," said the other Nord who wasn't gagged. "I was just trying to steal a horse and get to Hammerfell." 

Keolah leaned back, and said absently, "The sky is lovely today. Although the cart is awfully uncomfortable, and I wish my hands weren't tied. I have an itch." 

The carts pulled into a town, and she could hear voices. Women, children, watching as they came through. Keolah shifted to get a better look at her surroundings. Squat, drab buildings made of rough wood and stone. 

"The architecture around here has no style to it," Keolah commented. "Everything just looks like boxes, thrown together with no art. And it's all gray and brown!" 

"We're probably going to die, and you're complaining about the buildings?" Ralof said. 

"I don't want to die somewhere that's so brown!" 

"That wouldn't be _my_ biggest worry," the horse thief said. 

She tried to get a fire spell off to burn these ropes away, but she couldn't make the proper gestures with her hands bound, and no magic came forth. 

The cart stopped, and they got off, their names being called one by one. The soldier reading the list stopped and looked at her strangely when she came forth last. "Wait. Who are you?" 

"Keolah," she replied. 

"Are you with the Thalmor embassy?" the soldier asked. "No, that can't be right." He turned to the captain and asked, "What should we do? She's not on the list." 

"Forget the list. She goes to the block." 

"I'm afraid that I seem to have taken a wrong turn somewhere," Keolah said. "I meant to stop and ask directions, I think. I shouldn't even be here." 

"She goes to the block!" the captain insisted, ignoring her. 

Keolah sighed and turned away, looking at her fellow prisoners, Nords all of them. Wasn't it obvious that she didn't belong here? That she wasn't with them? 

An unearthly wail could be heard in the distance, and Keolah peered off, frowning thoughtfully. Was that the cry of some indigenous Skyrim wildlife? No, the others here didn't seem to know what it was, either. 

As the first of the rebels went to his execution, Keolah turned away, unable to watch as they cut off his head. She swayed on her feet and felt like she was going to be sick. 

"Next, the high elf!" the captain called. 

Were they calling for her? They must be. There weren't any other high elf prisoners here. She was so nervous and distracted that she hardly noticed that sound come again. Keolah stepped forward reluctantly, at the prodding of the soldiers behind her. As they pushed her to her knees toward the block, Keolah found herself looking at the severed head of the last man they'd executed. In disgust, she turned her head to look away. Staring at the headsman and his bloody axe wasn't much of an improvement, however. 

A shriek split the sky a third time, much closer this time, and from above the tower behind the executioner, a figure emerged silhouetted against the sky. Not a bird, but a great reptilian creature with enormous wings. It flew forward and landed on the tower, raining fire down upon the courtyard. The headsman stumbles, and she rolled away, clenching her eyes shut against the stinging flames. 

"Hey, high elf!" called a voice. "Get up! This may be the only chance we get!" 

Who was yelling? She blinked for a moment, her vision blurry, and saw the vague shape of a man before her. 

"Come on! This way!" 

Right, he was the man on the cart with her. She stumbled to her feet and scrambled after him. It's not like she had anywhere better to go under the circumstances. He led her off into a nearby stone tower and shut the door behind her. Good thinking, at least it wasn't going to burn down. 

"That's a magnificent dragon," Keolah commented thoughtfully. "I never thought I'd actually get to see one..." 

"I'm not feeling quite so privileged about that at the moment," Ralof said. 

"We must get moving," said another Nord. Ah, he was the other man who had been on the cart, the one who had been gagged. 

There were a few more rebels laying wounded on the floor in the tower. The Nord tending to them said, "Another moment out with that dragon and they'd be dead." 

"I'm a mage," Keolah said, turning to Ulfric. "I can heal them if you release my bonds." 

Ulfric looked to her distrustfully for a moment, then nodded and cut the ropes from her hands. Keolah bowed her head to him in thanks, and turned to the wounded Nords. She channeled forth healing magic into them, restoring their bodies and getting them back on their feet again. 

"You have my gratitude, high elf," Ulfric said, visibly relaxing a bit. "But we must go. Up the tower, now!" 

"Yes, sir!" Keolah said, turning to scramble up the stairs. 

The dragon knocked out a section of the wall ahead of her from outside, sending stones tumbling. Keolah got a very close look at the dragon's face as it sent a gout of flame directly in at her. 

"By all the gods, I'm on fire!" Keolah shrieked, stumbling back and falling down the stairs. She frantically waved her hands and channeled healing magic to abate the stinging pain as one of the Stormcloaks smothered the fire on her. 

"You alright, high elf?" Ulfric asked. 

Keolah nodded shakily. For once, she was glad to be wearing these rags. She would hate for a nice dress to have been ruined like that. 

"We've got to get moving," Ulfric said. "We can't stay here." 

"There's an inn just across," Ralof said from above her, looking out at the hole the dragon made. "Jump across, and we'll follow as we can." 

Keolah wasn't too keen on the idea of going first, or even of running out into the open with a dragon on the loose, but it clearly wasn't safe to hide in here, either. She just nodded and ran up the stairs, and took a leap out onto the inn. Her landing could have been better, however, as she stumbled and very nearly fell off of the inn. She grabbed onto the broken building with her hands desperately, slipped and went tumbling to the ground anyway. 

"Oh, bother," Keolah muttered, and circled around back into the tower. 

"What are you doing back in here?" Ulfric asked. 

"Sorry, I missed the jump," Keolah explained, then climbed up the stairs to try it again. 

She didn't quite make it that time, either, so she came around to make a third attempt. The Stormcloaks were looking at her strangely by that point, but at least she managed a solid landing that time. Keolah ran across the ruined upper storey of the inn and fell through a hole in the floor. 

Keolah wasn't quite certain just where she was at that point, and so proceeded to run around wildly, attempting to escape from the dragon. She didn't really care which direction she was going, so long as it was away from the dragon. Unfortunately, it was a lot faster than it looked for something that big, and seemed to be everywhere she tried to go. 

Somebody was yelling to her, "With me, prisoner!" She didn't think she cared to go with anyone who called her "prisoner", however, as he was probably one of those who had been trying to execute her when the dragon showed up. Still, beggars can't be choosers, and at least he seemed to have the same idea of getting away from the dragon. 

Not that that stopped her from getting lost in the wreckage of the village anyway. She must have backtracked at least five times because the dragon had appeared directly in front of her. Where was Ulfric in all of this? And the other Stormcloaks? Ah! There was one of them, ahead of her. She ran over toward him. 

"Ralof, you traitor!" shouted an Imperial soldier. Probably the one who had been failing to get her to follow him around, she thought. 

"We're escaping, Hadvar," Ralof said. "You can't stop us this time." 

"Yeah!" Keolah agreed. "Yeah, we're escaping. How in Oblivion do we get out of here?" 

"You really are with them, high elf?" Hadvar asked. "Fine, I hope that dragon takes you all to Sovngarde!" 

"Come on, this way," Ralof said, gesturing to her and heading toward a door leading into the keep. At least that seemed somewhat safer than running around blindly up here. Keolah followed after him, sticking her tongue out at Hadvar on the way. 

"What happened to the others?" Keolah asked. "Where's Ulfric?" 

Ralof shook his head. "We got separated. I'm sure he'll make it out alright, though. It'll take more than a dragon to stop Ulfric Stormcloak." He went over to the body of another Stormcloak laying on the floor. "Ah, poor Gunjar. We'll meet again in Sovngarde, brother." He turned to Keolah. "You should grab his equipment. He doesn't need it any longer." 

"Ew! No!" Keolah protested. "I'm not wearing anything that somebody died in!" 

"Suit yourself," Ralof said. "Let's see if we can find a way out of here." He examined one of the barred doors leading out of the room. "Bah, it's locked." There came the sound of voices and footsteps from the opposite corridor. "Imperials! Take cover!" 

A pair of Imperial soldiers came into the room. "Look, it's the prisoners! They're trying to escape! Get them!" 

"Oh, come on!" Keolah said. "There's a dragon attacking the village! Don't you have other things to worry about than us?" 

They didn't listen to her, however, and slashed at Ralof with their swords. 

"Don't you dare hurt him! He's my friend!" Keolah lifted her hands and channeled healing magic at him. 

Ralof hacked the Imperial soldiers apart with his war axe. "Thanks for the help," he said once they were dead. "I guess you're not much of a combatant, are you. Well, I certainly couldn't complain about having a healer around, though." 

"You killed them," Keolah said a little numbly, staring at the bloody bodies on the floor. "I... guess it serves them right, though. They were trying to kill us, after all." 

Ralof bent over to search the bodies. "Never killed anyone before, I take it?" 

"No! Of course not. I mean, I don't think so. Well, I didn't mean to at any rate." 

"Uh-huh," Ralof said. 

Having found a key on one of the Imperial soldiers, he went over to unlock the door leading further into the keep. Keolah followed after him as they headed down into the dungeons. 

"By Talos, a torture room..." Ralof murmured. 

"TORTURE BAD!" Keolah yelled. 

She charged in and cast a flame spell, setting the Imperial torturer on fire. Once he was dead, she set about to healing the Stormcloaks who had been fighting him and his assistant. 

"I meant to do that," Keolah said. 

"I'm... glad to hear that," Ralof said uncertainly. "I think." 

They continued on further. Past the dungeon, they came to a series of caves with a stream trickling through it. Unfortunately, the caves were also occupied by giant spiders. One of them jumped down from the ceiling directly in front of Keolah. She shrieked and leaped back, raising her hands to send a gout of flame at the monsters. 

"Eek! Spiders!" 

"I hate those things, too," Ralof agreed, sinking his sword into one of them. 

"Die, die, die!" Keolah cried, sending fire flying everywhere. "Are they dead yet?" 

Ralof batted out his cloak. "Um. Yeah. They're dead." 

"Oh, sorry, did I hit you?" Keolah cast healing magic at him. 

"I'm alright now, thanks." 

"Hmm," Keolah said, turning away and taking a closer look around the cavern. Amidst the moss and lichen, there were a number of spider egg sacs. Those were kind of neat. She'd heard about things that could be done with them. She'd never actually done any alchemy before, but she'd always wanted to try it out. For some reason, however, people hadn't wanted her messing around with things that could potentially explode. She had no idea why. 

"What are you doing?" Ralof asked. 

"Collecting spider eggs," Keolah replied, tucking another away in her pouch. 

"We really should get out of here," Ralof said. "That dragon is still out there. Although I suppose the alchemical ingredients might be helpful later..." 

Further on down the cave, Ralof put a hand on Keolah's shoulder to stop her. 

"There's a bear just ahead," Ralof whispered. "See her?" 

"I don't see anything," Keolah said, perhaps a little too loudly. She peered about in the general direction that he was pointing in. 

"She's right there!" Ralof insisted. 

"All I see are some boulders," Keolah said, frowning. 

Ralof sighed. "What, are you blind? There's a bear, right there!" 

The bear, disturbed by their arguing, slowly stood up and could not ignore them any longer. _Now_ Keolah saw it, a massive wall of fur and fangs charging at them. Keolah shrieked and ran headlong down the tunnel, Ralof keeping pace right beside her. 

"I really hope this isn't a dead-end," Ralof said, panting and not looking back at the snarling bear. "Look! Light up ahead! Thank Talos, this must be the way out!" 

Fortunately, the bear didn't seem inclined to follow them out of the cave, although the two of them continued on for a fair stretch into the sunlight before they stopped running. 

Ralof rested his hands on his knees and paused to catch his breath. "Well. We made it. We're free! And still alive." 

"Does _everything_ in Skyrim try to kill you?" Keolah wondered. 

"Well, not _everything_ ," Ralof said. "The rabbits are pretty docile. Usually." 

" _Usually?_ " Keolah wondered, eyes widening, and he grinned back at her. 

Ralof started going on about how his sister ran a mill in a nearby village, but Keolah wasn't really paying attention. They were on a dirt path leading down a hill, and the sun was streaming down all around them. Flowers of various colors adorned the shrubbery nearby, and Keolah went over to collect some. They were such a lovely bit of color in the sea of brown. 

"You're picking flowers now?" Ralof said incredulously. "We need to keep moving. This place will be swarming with Imperials soon." 

"Oh," Keolah said, glancing up absently. "Is that a problem?" 

"You know, the Imperials?" Ralof said, raising an eyebrow. "The ones who were about to execute you, and have been trying to kill us?" 

"Oh. Right. Them." 

"Yeah. Them," Ralof said. "So we'd best get moving, or they might attack us again." 

"Look!" Keolah exclaimed, holding up her cupped hands. "I caught a butterfly!" 


	2. Love Is In the Air

"Maybe we should split up," Ralof suggested. He opened his mouth for a moment, perhaps about to suggest that she join up with the Stormcloaks, thought better of it, and closed his mouth again. "It'll throw them off our trail." 

"That's probably a good idea, I suppose," Keolah said. 

She struck off away from the path and into the wilderness. She didn't go more than ten paces before turning and going back to him. 

"Where would I be able to find Ulfric, anyway?" she asked. 

Ralof sighed in resignation and replied, "He would probably try to make his way back to Windhelm. You should be able to find him there." 

"Alright, thanks," Keolah said. 

She headed off again away from Ralof, but again she didn't go more than ten paces before running back to Ralof. 

"Which way is Windhelm?" she asked. 

Ralof stared at her for a few moments, consideringly, before pointing off in the opposite direction from where she'd been going. "That way." 

"Right, thanks," Keolah said. 

She went off in that direction for about twenty paces before she stopped and turned to sprint back to where Ralof was walking. 

"What is it now?" Ralof asked. 

"I changed my mind," Keolah said. "I think I'd better stick with you after all. I'm afraid I'll get lost out here." 

Ralof bit his lower lip. "I have this feeling that you probably would." He sighed again. "Alright then. Riverwood isn't too far from here." 

Keolah began to hum a little tune to herself as she strolled casually down the mountain after him. 

Ralof stopped after a while and pointed up at the mountain ahead of them. "See that? That's Bleak Falls Barrow." 

"That mountain?" Keolah said, squinting up to where he was pointing. 

"The ruin up there." 

"There's a ruin up there?" Keolah said. "All I see are some rocks." 

Ralof sighed. "You really are half blind, aren't you. At least the barrow isn't likely to come running down the mountain to maul us." 

"What's special about this barrow, anyway? We aren't going up there, are we?" 

"No," Ralof said, continuing walking and gesturing her to follow. "The ancient Nords buried their dead in barrows like that. The trouble is, the dead have trouble staying dead, and sometimes these walking corpses will get up and attack anyone that bothers their barrow. We call those Draugr." 

"Oh. I see. Well, I certainly don't want to bother them if I can help it!" 

"Good plan," Ralof agreed. 

They arrived in Riverwood shortly thereafter. It was another typical gray and brown Nord village, and looked liable to go up like kindling if a dragon were to show up here. 

"Things look quiet enough here," Ralof said. 

"A dragon!" cried an old village woman. "I saw a dragon!" She pointed frantically off toward the mountain Ralof had shown Keolah. 

"Relatively speaking," Ralof amended. "My sister's probably working at the mill..." 

"Dragons now, mother?" said a Nord man. "You'd best keep your voice down, or people might think you're crazy." 

"Oh, no," Keolah said, approaching them. "There was totally a dragon." 

"See?" the old woman said. "I told you!" 

"There really was a dragon?" The Nord's eyes widened. 

"Yup!" Keolah said. "It was magnificent! Burned that village to the south right to the ground! Well, except for the parts that were made of stone and weren't particularly flammable. Which was a lot of it, come to think. You Nords do so love your stone." 

"Would you Elves have us all live in the trees? You're just like that fool wood elf, Faendal." 

"Oh!" Keolah said. "There's a Bosmer in the village? How nice!" 

"Yes. He thinks he can woo the heart of Camilla Valerius." The Nord snorted disdainfully. "He's been spending a lot of time with her lately." 

Keolah frowned in confusion. "What's the problem with that?" 

"Well, obviously, she's too smart to fall for someone like him. I will win her heart myself!" 

"Oh," Keolah said dumbly. "Good luck with that? I'm sure she wouldn't spend so much time with him if she weren't actually interested in him." 

"Hmm, yes, I think she may need a bit of help in seeing him for what he is." He pulled a note out from somewhere and handed it to her. "Here, give this to her and tell her that it's from Faendal. I think I've captured his lack of subtlety perfectly." 

Keolah peered at the crudely written message and raised an eyebrow. "You obviously had this written up beforehand. How long have you been waiting for an opportunity to get this to her?" 

"If you don't want to do it, just give it back and I'll find some other way to get it to her." 

"I didn't say I wouldn't do it," Keolah said. "I was just curious." 

She shrugged and shoved the note into her bag. Now, where did Ralof run off to? He said something about the mill. She headed off in that general direction. Ah, there he was, talking to a Nord woman. 

"And who is this?" the woman asked. 

"This is Keolah," Ralof said. "They were going to execute her, too, but I think in her case it was just a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I think. Well, I'm pretty sure that if she actually committed any crime, it was entirely by accident." 

"Maybe I ate somebody's sweetroll..." Keolah said thoughtfully. 

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, all the same. I'm Gerdur. Welcome to Riverwood. Any friend of Ralof's is a friend of mine. Oh, but we should get you out of those rags. You can have one of my old dresses. You look about my size, although less ample in the bosom." 

"Gerdur!" Ralof protested. 

"I'm just telling it like it is," Gerdur said. "Wouldn't want it falling off her chest, you know?" 

"You know what?" Ralof said. "You ladies can talk about clothes all you like. I'm going to go get some sleep. I don't think I've even slept in two days." He turned and headed off. 

Gerdur led Keolah back to her home to look through the wardrobe a bit. "Hmm... I have this one from before Frodnar was born. It doesn't really fit me anymore. Why don't you try it on?" 

"Alright," Keolah said, taking the dress. 

"And Ralof, don't think I don't know you aren't asleep yet," Gerdur said. "No peeping at our guest while she's changing!" 

Ralof grumbled a little and rolled over to face the wall. 

Keolah slipped into the dress. It fit well enough, although she wasn't exactly going to go to any Thalmor parties in it. Not that she wanted to go to any Thalmor parties to begin with if she could possibly help it. They were _so_ stuffy. 

She thanked Gerdur and headed back outside. The sun was sinking lower in the sky as the day slowly came to a close. This had been a very strange day, but she certainly wasn't about to go back to Cyrodiil after that! Skyrim seemed a nice enough place, if rather brown. 

"Good day, sister Elf," said a male wood elf walking in from the lumber mill. "It's nice to see a familiar face around here." 

"Oh, hello," Keolah said. "Are you Faendal? I guess you must be Faendal. I doubt there's many other Bosmer around here." 

Faendal looked at her oddly. "Have you been talking to Sven? What has that oafish Nord been saying about me?" 

"The one I spoke to didn't mention his name," Keolah said. "But he went on about one Camilla Valerius and how you didn't stand a chance and he would totally woo her. Woo, that's a funny word. How do you 'woo' someone? I thought it was like, just shouting 'Woo!' when something good happened." 

Faendal looked at her strangely, but she was used to that. "I'm sure Camilla will choose me over Sven, but perhaps she needs a bit of help in deciding." He pulled a note out and handed it to her. "Would you give this to Camilla, and tell her that it's from Sven? Perhaps this will discourage her from spending so much time with him." 

"And you just had this written up already?" Keolah said. 

"I was waiting for a good opportunity to give it to her," Faendal said. 

"Right..." Keolah said dubiously. "Alright, where might I be able to find Camilla, anyway?" 

Faendal pointed to one of the buildings. "The Riverwood Trader is right over there. She's probably inside, working it with her brother, Lucan." 

Keolah nodded. "Alright then." She went over to the building that looked, to her eyes, exactly like every other building in the village, and went inside. 

"I said no!" a man was arguing inside. "No adventures! That's just foolishness. You could get yourself hurt, or killed!" 

"Well, what would you suggest doing, then?" a woman replied. 

The man turned his attention toward Keolah. "Oh, sorry, a customer. Welcome to the Riverwood Trader. I'm Lucan Valerius, and this is my sister, Camilla. Can I get something for you?" 

"What was that all about?" Keolah wondered. 

"Er, well, some thief broke into the shop last night," Lucan said. "But not to worry, we still have plenty to sell. All that was taken was a solid gold ornament in the shape of a dragon's claw." 

Keolah glanced around the shabby shop and made a face, and commented, "Probably worth more than your entire stock combined." She smoothed her face. "Sorry, that was rude of me." 

"True, though," Lucan said, shaking his head. "You look like a traveler. I don't suppose you're an adventuring sort? Maybe you could get the claw back for me?" 

"Maybe," Keolah said. "Where do you suppose it might have been taken?" 

"I think the thief is hiding up at Bleak Falls Barrow," Lucan replied. "Daft if you ask me. I don't know who would be crazy enough to hide out there, but there you have it." 

"Wasn't that the spooky ruin up on top of the mountain?" 

Lucan nodded. "That would be the place." 

"I don't know if I'd really want to go up there, myself," Keolah said. "That place sounded awfully scary." 

"I really don't blame you if you want to stay away from there," Lucan said. "But if you change your mind, I have some money coming in and would pay you well for the claw's safe return." 

"Hmm, I do need the coin..." Keolah said thoughtfully, putting her hand on her chin. "I guess walking dead can burn like anything else. I'll see what I can do." 

"Now that's what I like to hear," Lucan said, and looked over to Camilla. "See? Now you don't have to go after all." 

"But maybe she'll need some help," Camilla said. 

"You're a mage, aren't you?" Lucan asked Keolah, who nodded. "You'll be fine, I'm sure. I've got some old spellbooks around for sale if you're interested, by the way. Not much, though. You'll want to see a court wizard, or visit that college up in Winterhold, if you want to see more than my meager selection." 

"Maybe I will," Keolah said. "I didn't realize there were any magic schools up here." 

"Just the one," Lucan said. "The Nords are somewhat distrustful of magic in general. They'd much prefer charging at something with an axe or the like." He chuckled. 

Keolah absently browsed through the store inventory, and reached into her bag to see how many coins she had, although she knew it wasn't many. As she did so, she ran across two pieces of paper, and remembered what Sven and Faendal had asked her to do. 

"Oh yeah," she said, pulling them out. "Camilla, I've got letters for you. Sven and Faendal asked me to give them to you." 

Camilla took the notes from her. "Both of them? Oh, those two... Wait, what's this? These are... not as sweet and endearing as I was expecting." 

"Actually, they were both written by one another to try to claim it was from the other one in order to dissuade you from seeing him," Keolah said. 

"Men!" Camilla said, throwing the notes to the floor. "Thank you for letting me see both of them for what pigs they really are." 

"Not a problem," Keolah said, smiling at her. "I'm sure you can do better than the likes of them." 

Keolah gave a short bow and bid the two of them good night, and left the shop. Her stomach was growling, so she headed over to another building that, judging by the sign outside, might be an inn. 

Definitely an inn. Inside, there was a warm firepit crackling in the center of the room, tables lining the walls, and a bar at the far end of the room. Sven was strumming at a lute beside the firepit, to the applause of a man who looked at least half drunk. There also appeared to be a table near the bar with glass tubing and vials used for alchemy. 

"Orgnar!" said a woman, coming out from a side door and addressing the man at the bar. "The ale's going bad." 

"That would imply that it was good to begin with," Keolah commented. "All the ale I've ever tried tasted like it came out of a horse." 

"Oh, a visitor. I'm Delphine. Welcome to the Sleeping Giant Inn. Are you looking for a room for the night?" 

Keolah shook her head. "No, I'm good. I'm staying with Gerdur and her family. I just came over here to get something to eat. Oh! And I don't suppose I could use your alchemy table by chance? Please?" 

"Go right ahead," Orgnar said. "Just be sure to clean up after yourself. I've got some ingredients for sale, too." 

Keolah went over to look at what he had and bought some of the more interesting items. That pretty much wiped out what coin she had, but it would be worth it. She would be an alchemical master! 

Spider eggs, mushrooms, flowers, some glowing stuff she wasn't sure what it was... She had no idea what any of this actually did. But she would find out, oh yes. But first, she had to throw it all together to see what would happen. 

A horrendous cloud of stench wafted out from the concoction she'd just finished mixing, filling the room and making her gag. Sven stopped playing and ran for the door, covering his mouth, followed shortly by everyone else in the inn. Keolah decided it best to follow their lead and flee as well. 

"What in Oblivion did you _do_ , Elf?" Orgnar wondered as he caught his breath outside. 

"I don't know," she replied. 

Delphine snorted softly. "It would seem that our guest has invented a stink bomb." 

Orgnar glared at her. "You are no longer allowed to use the alchemy table." 

"Sorry," Keolah said sheepishly. 

Even after that awful odor, she was still hungry. She had to wonder when the last time it was that she'd eaten. Well, even if the inn were breathable at the moment, she doubted she would be welcome back inside just yet, so she just headed back to Gerdur's house. 

"What is that smell?" Gerdur wondered as she stepped inside. 

"I have no idea," Keolah said. "But it got me kicked out of the inn. I don't suppose you've got anything to eat? I'm starved." 

"Of course, of course. I have some nice grilled leeks for you." 

Keolah considered for a moment exactly how hungry she was. Hungry enough that it would be awfully rude to refuse, she decided. "Thank you." 

"I can't believe a real, live dragon attacked Helgen," Gerdur said as Keolah ate. "If a dragon were to attack Riverwood, we'd be completely defenseless. Maybe you could head up to Whiterun and ask the jarl to send soldiers to protect us." 

"All the soldiers in Helgen didn't seem to do much good," Keolah said. "All sorts of important people were there. And mages. And archers. And there might've even been a general there, too." 

"Still, it would be good to have _something_ ," Gerdur said. 

"Oh, yeah," Keolah said. "Soldiers would be quite helpful to distract the dragon while everyone else runs for their lives." 

"Would you be willing to get word to Jarl Balgruuf?" Gerdur said. 

"I can do that," Keolah said. "How do I get to Whiterun from here, anyway?" 

"It's just up the road," Gerdur said vaguely. "Cross the bridge and head northeast up the river." 

"Alright. I'll set out first thing in the morning." 

Keolah finished her leeks and headed for bed, and then proceeded to sleep like the dead. Better than the dead, in fact, considering their habit of getting up and walking around and attacking people. 

When she woke, the house was empty but for Ralof sitting by the fire. "Finally woke up, huh? You seemed tired, so we didn't want to wake you. It's almost midday." 

"Good time for breakfast, then," Keolah said. She hoped it wasn't leeks, however. 

"Vegetable soup?" Ralof said. 

That would do. Once she'd eaten her fill, she headed outside. Hmm, she thought that there was someplace she was supposed to be going today, but she'd entirely forgotten where or why. Ah, right, she wanted to head to Windhelm to join up with Ulfric and the Stormcloaks. 

"You're nothing but trouble," said Faendal, passing her on the road with an armful of wood. 

"For once, I agree with the wood elf," Sven said, walking along next. 

"Keolah!" Camilla called after her from the door of the Riverwood Trader, and ran up toward her. 

"Good day, Camilla," Keolah said, nodding to her. "I see the males are unhappy." 

"Oh, yes," Camilla said. "I've decided that all men are scum. When I get married, I would much rather marry a nice woman like you." 

Keolah blinked at her. "Such things are done here in Skyrim?" 

"They are. They're much more open-minded about things like that here." 

"Well... that's nice, I suppose," Keolah said. 

"So... you're awfully pretty," Camilla said. "And brave. And smart." 

"Are you trying to come onto me?" Keolah wondered. "No offense, Camilla, but you're really not my type." 

"Are you not... into women?" 

"I'm not into _humans_ ," Keolah said. 

"Oh," Camilla said. "Well, maybe I could change your mind like you changed mine!" 

"You know, I have things to do, places to be," Keolah said, although she couldn't quite remember precisely what specifically. "I'd best be going now. Farewell for now." 

"Do come back, darling!" Camilla called after her as she turned to leave. 

Keolah could hardly get out of Riverwood fast enough. 


	3. Little Lost Elf

Keolah headed off down the road away from Riverwood. Down by the river past some standing stones, she encountered a hunter woman who was selling some meat and pelts. She was looking over the furs consideringly when a man suddenly ran up to her and handed her a warhammer. 

"Hold onto this!" he said vaguely. 

"Uh... okay?" Keolah said dumbly. 

"Doublecross me and I'll kill you!" He proceeded to run off again. 

"What just happened here?" Keolah asked the hunter. 

"I have no idea," the hunter replied. 

"What am I supposed to do with this thing?" Keolah muttered. "It's heavy and I can hardly lift it! Bah, I hope he'll be back for it." 

"I have fish for sale, too," the hunter said. 

"Ah! Fish! Definitely beats grilled leeks." 

As she was looking over the hanging salmon, another man ran up and said, "Did you see someone run past just now?" 

Keolah blinked at him. "No... I don't think so, anyway. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention?" 

"Well, if you see him, grab him. He stole from me! Say, that warhammer you've got there looks familiar..." 

"Huh?" Keolah said. "Oh, right, this." 

"Don't try to tell me it's yours. A little slip of an Elf like you couldn't even lift it! Are you helping him?" 

"No, that's mine," the hunter said. "We haven't seen your thief." 

"Oh. Well... Ah! There he is!" The man pulled out a bow and started shooting. One of the arrows hit its mark, and the fugitive died with a scream. "That takes care of that." He went over to look at the body. "He doesn't have my hammer on him, though. He must've stashed it somewhere, then. I suppose I'll have to go looking for it." 

"You do that," the hunter said. "For all you know, he dropped it in the river just to mess with you." 

"Bah! He just might've at that." The man wandered off again. 

"So, you don't want that, do you, Elf?" the hunter asked. "He clearly doesn't need it anymore." 

"Huh?" Keolah said. "Oh, the hammer? I thought you said it was yours." 

"Never mind. Why don't we just set you up with some provisions for wherever you're going? Don't want to starve before you get there, right?" She chuckled softly. The hunter gave Keolah a couple nice pelts to keep her warm at night, as well as plenty of meat and fish. 

"Oh, thank you!" Keolah said. "You are too kind." 

"Yeah, I know," the woman said, grinning crookedly. "Run along now. Do try not to get lost." She picked up the warhammer and murmured, "Hmm, I wonder what I could get for this... certainly a lot more than I could for a couple of ratty furs and some meat. Clearly magical..." 

Keolah smiled at the nice hunter lady and bid her good day, and headed off down along the river. 

A bit later, she heard a female cry of pain off the path nearby, and ran to try to help. A woman in mage robes was being attacked by a pack of wolves. 

"I'll save you!" Keolah called. 

She proceeded to roast the wolves with fire. However, she wasn't fast enough to prevent the woman from being torn apart, and finished off the wolves only to be left with just a dead body. 

"That totally was not my fault," Keolah muttered. "It's not like I set this person on fire by accident or anything... Well. _This_ person, anyway." 

Then she took a closer look at her surroundings, and found that the woman had been standing near what appeared to be an altar with a skeleton on top of it. Maybe it was just as well that she was killed. 

Further on, she crossed a bridge near what appeared to be a small mill. Someone who was giving her directions to somewhere told her that she would need to cross a bridge somewhere, didn't they? She was pretty sure they did. Cross a bridge and follow the river. So she'd best keep following the river, she thought. She was obviously not there yet. But the river had turned into more of a lake, and now the road turned away and wasn't running alongside it anymore. Well, the road surely would know where to go, right? Roads connected cities, so if she kept following the road, she'd get to the city sooner or later. 

She came to a crossroads, and peered at the sign. The letters were old and faded, and as she was trying to make them out, she got distracted by a butterfly. Butterfly wings! Good potions ingredients! Now, where was she going again? This way, she was sure. She set off down the road. 

A patrol of Imperial soldiers passed her along the road. "Keep an eye out for Stormcloak spies." 

"Yup, yup," Keolah agreed. "Those wily Stormcloaks could be anywhere." Once they'd passed by, she stuck her tongue out at their backs. 

As the day grew late and the sun started to set, the sky clouded and rain began to fall. Oh, bother. She pulled her furs closer around her to keep herself warm. She wondered if anyone up at that magic college taught spells to keep the rain off. And she really hoped that it wasn't much further to town. 

Next, she encountered a group of Altmer on the road who had a Nord prisoner in bonds. Thalmor, unless she missed her guess. She scowled. 

"Did this man do something wrong?" Keolah asked. 

"He is suspected of worshipping Talos," replied the leader of the group of Thalmor. "We are taking him back for interrogation." 

"Torture, you mean?" 

"Whatever is necessary to get a confession out of him," the Thalmor said. 

"What've you got against Talos, anyway?" Keolah wondered. 

"It is immoral to worship a man," the Thalmor replied. "I'd think a fellow Altmer would know this. Or do you have something to confess?" 

"I left the Summerset Isle," Keolah retorted. "I don't have to listen to you Thalmor any longer." 

"You are in Imperial territory, however. And the Empire must abide by the terms of the White-Gold Concordat, which outlawed the worship of Talos. And I think you are acting suspicious. I think you are secretly a sympathizer to these heretics. Then you can die with them!" 

"As if!" Keolah cried. "Burn, you bastards!" 

Perhaps she should not have attempted to take on these Thalmor so lightly. They _hurt_ , and she thought one of them was using lightning magic. Well, she wasn't about to lose to the likes of them, and she'd collected a number of potions from somewhere, so she started drinking them down to heal her wounds and keep her spells coming. 

"How many of those things do you _have_?" wondered the last Thalmor incredulously as the other two went down. 

"At least a dozen more," Keolah said. 

"Bah!" said the other high elf. "Just die already!" 

Clearly he hadn't gotten the hint that she had no intention of doing any such thing, and wound up dead himself instead. 

"Thanks for the help. Are you going to let me go now?" asked the prisoner, who had spent the entire fight standing well out of the way. 

"Oh. Right." She pulled out a dagger from her belt and cut the prisoner's bonds, then handed the blade to him. "There you go. You keep safe now." 

"They won't get the drop on me again. The Stormcloaks appreciate your help. Fewer Thalmor around can only be a good thing." 

As they parted ways, Keolah went off whistling a little in the rain, happy at having done a good deed for the day. 

The rain tapered off, and night settled in, but she refused to stop and set up camp. Surely it couldn't be much further to Windhelm. Or was she going to Whiterun? She wasn't quite sure. 

Finally, she caught sight of buildings ahead. There was a farm, and a stable, and beyond that, a large stone wall! This must be a city! She stepped up her pace and gratefully approached the gates. 

One of the guards outside said, "Welcome to Markarth, the safest city in the Reach." 

"Wait," Keolah said. "You mean this isn't Windhelm?" 

The guards both looked at her strangely. "You're on the opposite side of Skyrim from Windhelm, Elf." 

"Oh, bother," Keolah said, shaking her head and sighing. 

"Took a wrong turn, did you?" the guard said with a smirk. "Well, head straight in for the Silver-Blood Inn if you're looking for a place to sleep for the night. Got a warm hearth to dry you off, too." 

"That sounds lovely," Keolah said, heading inside. She asked a guard inside the gates, "Excuse me. Which way is the Silver-Blood Inn?" 

"That building right there," the guard said, pointing. 

"Ah, good, thank you." She was already horribly lost in getting here. She didn't need to be spending the rest of the night wandering around town trying to find the inn, too. 

The inn was thankfully warm inside, and she went over and put her hands over the fire. 

"I'm Cosnach, and I'm drunk and bored," a random man said to her. 

"That's nice," Keolah said. 

"How about a brawl, little Elf?" said Cosnach. "I bet I could beat you easy." 

"I bet you could beat me," Keolah replied. 

"I bet I could beat you," Cosnach repeated. 

"You bet I could beat you?" Keolah said in confusion. 

"I bet you could beat me," Cosnach said. 

"I bet you could beat me," Keolah said again. 

"Alright, you're on. A hundred septims on the outcome. No weapons, and none of that fancy magic, either." 

"Ow! Ow, ow, ow!" Keolah yelled, covering her head with her arms. 

"What are you crying about?" Cosnach said. "I haven't even hit you yet!" 

"I was just getting it out of the way preemptively," Keolah said. 

Cosnach punched her once, and she collapsed to the floor. 

"Ow," Keolah muttered. 

"I win," Cosnach said. "You owe me a hundred septims." 

"No, no," Keolah said. "I bet that you'd win. You bet that I'd win. You owe _me_ a hundred septims." 

"What are you talking about, Elf?" 

"You totally did," the barkeep said. "You're too drunk to even know what you're betting now." 

"Bah!" Cosnach said, reaching for his money pouch. "Fine, here's your money. I need another drink." 

Keolah paid for a room for the night, and headed back to get some rest. When she reached her room, however, she stopped in the doorway and just blinked at what passed for accommodations in Markarth. The beds were made of _stone_? She could hardly believe it. She went over to check if it was really as hard as it looked. Yep, still stone. 

She stalked back out to the common area to find to the innkeeper. "I demand a refund." 

"Something wrong with your room?" 

"The bed. Is a rock," she said flatly. 

The innkeeper just chuckled knowingly. "All the beds in Markarth are made of stone. Built on dwarven ruins, don't you know." 

"The Dwemer were idiots, and it's obvious why they died out," Keolah said dryly. 

"Still, at least it's warm, dry, and safe," the innkeeper said. "You're not going to find better in this city." 

"This city is awful," Keolah said with a sigh. "Can I at least get a pillow?" 

"Sure, but that'll cost you another five septims." 

"This is extortion," Keolah muttered as she pulled out her coin purse to pay. 

"Here you go," he said, pulling out a pillow and tossing it over to her. 

Just for that, she was keeping the pillow. And anything else she found that wasn't nailed down, if nobody was looking. Still, even with the pillow and the furs the hunter had kindly given her, sleep was uncomfortable that night. 

Come morning, she hauled her bag down to the marketplace. Thankfully, it was right outside, so she wouldn't have to look at it. There was a shop with a sign outside labeled "Arnleif and Sons Trading Company". That might be a good place to pawn off some things, she thought as she headed inside. 

"Hey, Arnleif," she said to the woman at the counter. "I've got some stuff to sell, if you take trades." 

"I'm not Arnleif. I'm Lisbeth. Arnleif was my husband's father. But I'll take your goods." 

Keolah brought out some equipment that she'd taken off the Thalmor that she'd encountered on the way here. At least some of it was still in good condition. 

"This looks like Thalmor stuff," Lisbeth said. "Where did you get this?" 

"Off the corpses of some Thalmor that I murdered," Keolah replied lightly. 

Lisbeth stared at her and said, "I'm just going to pretend that you said 'some Thalmor that you found dead'. I really should know better than to ask questions like that in this line of work sometimes..." 

"Also, Arnleif, I've got these," Keolah said, bringing out some bowls and a bottle of ale that she'd taken from the Silver-Blood Inn. 

"I'm not Arnleif. And dare I ask?" Lisbeth said. "These are stolen, aren't they." 

"Yep," Keolah replied. 

"I'm sorry, but I can't take stolen goods." 

"Okay, in that case, they're totally not stolen, Arnleif," Keolah said. 

Lisbeth snorted softly. "Even if you hadn't just admitted to it, I _know_ that they're stolen." 

"How?" Keolah said. "How can you prove that, Arnleif?" 

"I can tell, and so can every other shopkeeper worth their salt in the business," Lisbeth said. "You won't find any honest merchant that will buy stolen goods." 

"And what's the difference between items that I found just laying around, and items that I got off of a dead body?" Keolah wondered. 

"It's completely different," Lisbeth said. 

Keolah sighed and rolled her eyes. "Oh, forget about it, Arnleif. These probably wouldn't go for more than a few septims anyway. I'll just take this back to the inn." 

"And for the last time, I'm not Arnleif!" Lisbeth called back at her as she left. 

Keolah went back into the Silver-Blood Inn and handed the ale to Cosnach. "A drink on me." 

"Hey, thanks," Cosnach said. "You're alright, Elf." 

With that, she left the inn and headed out from the gates of Markarth. She was well out of her way and it would take her a fair while to get back to where she was supposed to be. Wherever that was. 

As she passed by the stables, a large dog approached her and started sniffing at her pack. "Oh, you must be smelling the venison I've got in there. Sorry, doggy, that's my lunch. It's not for you." 

"Down, boy," said a man. "Heel." The dog loped back over to him and sat down at his side. "You look like a traveler. I'm Banning, and I'm a dog trainer. Can I interest you in a well-trained dog to keep you safe?" 

"No, I'm good," Keolah said. "I don't need to be accidentally setting a poor dog on fire, too. I'd feel guilty about that." 

"Er, right, perhaps not," Banning said. "Say, that reminds me. I was meaning to deliver some fresh meat up for the dogs at the keep." 

"Burning dogs reminds you of dogfood?" Keolah wondered, raising an eyebrow. 

"No! I mean, I was just thinking of the dogs I trained who are up at the keep. And the meat is spiced beef! Not dog meat!" 

"Oh, okay," Keolah said. "Wouldn't want to turn our dogs into cannibals, would we? Better to feed them human flesh, right?" She chuckled. 

"Certainly," Banning agreed hesitantly. "If you're heading up to the keep, could you deliver this meat for them?" 

"I really wasn't," Keolah said. 

"No?" Banning said. "It's just a short walk across town, and there's some septims in it for you if you'll do it." 

"Well, I suppose. I really can't argue with easy money. I'll take it." 

Keolah took the meat from Banning, turned and headed back into the city. No one, however, had mentioned just how confusing this city was once you left the marketplace. There were stairways and bridges going this way and that, up and down, over and across, back and forth. How did these people ever find their way around in this wretched place? Alright, time to start trying random doors. 

One door opened into a strong-smelling room full of vials containing liquid and shelves stacked with alchemical ingredients. Ah, an apothecary! How nice! Maybe she could get some pointers here, or at least some practice. 

"Come on in, dear," said an old woman behind the counter. "Welcome to the Hag's Cure. I've got something for everything that ails you. Need to make someone fall in love with you, or to shut up an annoying brat? I can help with that." 

"You must be really good at what you do," Keolah said. 

"Oh, yes, I get along well enough. Not that anyone wants to admit to buying anything from me. Say, are you heading up to the keep, by chance?" 

"Why does everyone wonder if I'm going to the keep?" Keolah said. 

"Well, you're obviously a stranger here, and if you're a stranger of any importance whatsoever, the keep is where you'll be going." 

Keolah snorted softly. "Yeah, I'm heading to the keep to deliver dogfood. You want something else delivered while I'm up there?" 

The hag pulled out a vial and passed it over to her. "Take this up to the steward at the keep, if you would, dearie. Raerek is his name. Tell him it should help solve that little problem of his." 

"Provided I can ever find the place, at least," Keolah said. 

"Take a left and head up the stairs. You can't miss it." 

"Alright, thanks." 

Keolah headed out and went in that direction, and promptly missed it. 

The next door she went into, a woman at the counter said, "I don't think you belong here." 

"No, I really don't," Keolah said. "I'm completely lost in this awful, gray city! I've been trying to find my way to the keep all morning, and I have no idea where it is!" 

"I see. Alright, just head out the door and take a right. Go right up the stairs, and you can't miss it." 

"Everyone keeps telling me I can't miss it, but I keep missing it!" 

She sighed and left the building in frustration. Right, turn right and go up the stairs... can't miss it? Bah, where was it? 

"Excuse me," she asked a random guard. "Where is the keep?" 

"It's directly in front of you," said the guard, staring at her incredulously. He turned and pointed at a very large, obvious, ornate door. 

"Oh. Oops. Thanks. I have no idea how I didn't see that there." 

Keolah headed into Understone Keep. The place was poorly lit and very... dwarven. How could these people stand to live in a place like this? Everything in the city was made out of stone! 

Well, at least the big, hungry dogs were happy when they got their breakfast. They probably didn't notice or care that they were basically living in a cave. After collecting the money for the delivery from a servant woman, she headed up toward the throne to find the steward. She felt very proud of herself for remembering what she was supposed to be doing. 

"Halt, stranger. By what reason do you approach the Mournful Throne?" 

"I bring a delivery for the steward Raerek from the Hag's Cure," Keolah said, pulling out the potion and peering at it. "I believe it's a Stallion's Potion, to boost stamina." 

The jarl and housecarl snickered softly as she handed the potion to Raerek. 

Raerek glared at her and handed her some coins. "Some septims for your trouble... and thank you for your discretion." He glared aside at the other two, who were still snickering. 

"You're most welcome," Keolah said cheerfully, and walked off whistling obliviously. 

Now, wasn't there something else she was supposed to be doing? Right, she wanted to go to Windhelm to join up with Ulfric Stormcloak. Or, wait, wasn't she supposed to do something in Whiterun? And she was sure somebody else had asked her to do something, too, but she couldn't remember what. Oh, bother. 

It took her the better part of the day to find her way back to the marketplace again, so she decided to just stay the night in Markarth again. Even if she was sleeping on a rock. 

The next morning, she headed out toward the stables and just decided to hire a cart. She had the money for it, at least, and she could sleep more on the way there. It had to be more comfortable than the beds in Markarth. 

"Where are you headed?" asked the driver. 

"Whitehelm," Keolah muttered sleepily. 

"Uh... right. You look beat. How about you take a nap in back, and I'll wake you when we get to Whiterun? It's straight on the way to Windhelm, anyhow." 

"That sounds lovely. I can't wait to see Windrun." 


	4. The Worst Thief in Whiterun

"Time to wake up, lass," said the cart driver. "We're almost there." 

Keolah groaned and stirred. The cart wasn't exactly the best place to be sleeping, but it certainly beat the stone beds in Markarth. "Are we at Winterhold yet?" 

"Winterhold!?" the driver said. "You wanted to go to Winterhold?" 

"Uh... maybe? I don't know," Keolah said. "I can't keep these Nord towns straight. I know it started with a W... or maybe a V depending on who was saying it..." 

"Well, we're at Whiterun now," the driver said as the cart trundled to a stop. "If you want to go somewhere else, you can find me, or someone else with a cart, at the stables." 

"I'm pretty sure there was something I needed to do in Whiterun," Keolah said, climbing out. "Thanks for the lift." 

The sun was already starting to sink toward the horizon as she approached the city gates. A guard stopped her as she came up. 

"Halt! The city's closed with all the dragons about. We're only letting in people who have official business here." 

Keolah stared at him. "That's the most daft thing I've heard lately. What, are you afraid that people might actually come here looking for protection? And what about trade?" 

"Don't look at me. I'm just following orders." 

"Your orders are idiotic, and I'll be sure to tell your superiors that when I speak with them," Keolah said. 

"So you do have official business here?" the guard asked. "News of dragon attacks?" 

"Dragons! I got a good, up-close look at a huge dragon that attacked a village near the border," Keolah said. 

"You were at Helgen?" the guard said, eyes widening. "You're lucky to get out of there alive. You'd best head in. The jarl will want to hear of this right away. You can find the keep at the top of the hill." 

" _Thank_ you," Keolah said, and headed inside. 

Just inside the gates, she came across a man arguing with a blacksmith woman about a weapons order. From the sounds of things, they were both Imperial supporters. As she approached, the man turned to her. 

"Battle-Born or Gray-Mane?" asked the man. 

"Don't look at me," Keolah said. "I have a hard time telling men apart sometimes. For that matter, I can't tell Mer apart sometimes, either. Maybe you should all wear different colored outfits? Perhaps carry around signs with your names on them?" 

The Nord snorted softly. "Might make things easier. You're new in town, I take it? The two main clans in Whiterun are Gray-Mane and Battle-Born. But the Gray-Manes support the Stormcloaks, while we Battle-Borns remained loyal to the Empire. So I'll ask again. Which side are you on?" 

Keolah looked him over. He was a large, muscular Nord with a sword at his belt and worn armor on his body. No doubt he knew how to use it. "Pardon me for saying so, Mr. Battle-Born, but if I were a supporter of the Stormcloaks, do you really think I would be foolish enough to come out and say so to you?" 

"So you _are_ a traitor, but you're too cowardly to say so openly?" Battle-Born said. "Then you're even worse than the Gray-Manes." 

Keolah rolled her eyes. "That's so not what I said. Bah! You Nords make no sense. What do you want me to say? Sure, I love the Battle-Borns, even though I'd never heard of them until five minutes ago! Come on, really now? And I've never even _met_ a Gray-Mane." 

"Let's make this simple for you then," Battle-Born said. "Do you support the Empire, or are you another traitor that wants to bend knee to Ulfric Stormcloak?" 

"Do you interrogate _every_ traveler that comes through those gates?" Keolah said. 

"You're avoiding the question." 

Keolah didn't think there was any good answer to this. Ulfric was a good man who saved her life. The Empire had tried to execute her for no good reason, and she still wasn't sure just what she'd done wrong. But she wasn't here to start a fight if she could help it. There were way too many armed guards around. 

"I'm just a humble traveler who is far from home," Keolah said. "I know little of politics in Skyrim, and I'd like to keep it that way." 

"Sooner or later, we all have to choose a side," Battle-Born said, walking away. "Long live the Empire!" 

Grumbling a little to herself and generally unhappy about her reception here, Keolah headed further into town and soon came to a marketplace. And very nearly ran into the town drunk. 

"I'm almost sober!" said the drunk. "Can you bring me a bottle of Argonian ale from the inn over there?" 

"Uh, sure, okay," Keolah said uncertainly. 

As she started to head toward the inn in question, she almost ran into someone else, a woman this time. 

"I'm looking to become a merchant!" the woman said. 

"That's nice," Keolah replied. 

"I've been talking to the leader of one of the Khajiit caravans, who offered to help me get started if I could bring him a mammoth's tusk," she went on. "But where am I supposed to get one of those?" 

"From a mammoth, most likely," Keolah said. 

"I was hoping I might be able to buy one from someone. If you ever run across one, I'll buy it off of you for a good price." 

"I'm not going to go kill mammoths for you," Keolah said. 

"No, you don't really look like a warrior, but you're a traveler, aren't you? If you ever run across one, you could make a fine profit if you brought it to me!" 

"Oh, alright, I'll keep an eye out, I suppose." 

As she walked away from the woman, she wondered what it was that she was doing. Eh, she couldn't remember. She went over to browse the market stalls instead to see if they had anything interesting. As she did so, she overheard an argument between another couple of Nords. 

"And what of my dear son, Thorald?" said the woman. 

"What, do you think I'm keeping him prisoner in my cellar?" said the man. "Face it! He died a traitor, like all the other Stormcloaks will." 

As the man walked off, Keolah approached the woman. "Gray-Mane, I'm guessing?" 

"Fralia Gray-Mane," said the woman, nodding to her. "All I can think about is my poor lost son. But I know he's still alive!" 

"How can you be sure?" Keolah wondered. 

"I just know it," Fralia said. "I can feel it." 

"Oh, I understand. I get those feelings sometimes, too. Of course, it's usually just flatulence..." 

"Come, let's speak more in private, and I'll tell you all about it." 

Keolah followed as Fralia lead her off away from the marketplace. As they walked through, they passed by a couple who were arguing, apparently about a sword. 

"Is your sword more important than your wife?" the woman retorted. 

"I just need to hire a good mercenary to retrieve it from those bandits!" said the Redguard man. He then turned to Keolah. "Say, have you tried mercenary work? It might suit you." 

"I'm a mage, not a mercenary, but I suppose I wouldn't be averse to incinerating bandits for pay," Keolah said. "What do you need done?" 

"Some bandits stole my father's old sword. He fed his entire family with the gold he made using it!" 

"So, isn't it a bit counterproductive to make your own family starve to bring it back?" Keolah said, raising an eyebrow. 

"Now you're sounding like my wife. Look, if you can bring it back, I'll be grateful to you. I know where the bandits are. I'll mark the location on your map." 

"Sure, I suppose if I'm in the area, I'll take a look," Keolah said. 

Fralia had paused nearby to wait for her. "You're such a good soul, wanting to help everyone you come across. Here, come inside." 

Once inside with the door closed, a beefy young Nord man with an enormous battle-axe came out and waved it at her. "Who have you brought into our home, mother? We can't trust anyone! She might be spying for the Battle-Borns!" 

"Meep!" Keolah said, and hid behind the nearest chair. "Don't hurt me! I didn't do it! At least, I don't think I did! This time! Probably!" 

"Avulstein, put that down!" Fralia said. "This nice elven mage is here to help us find Thorald!" 

"And what if she tells someone I'm here?" Avulstein said. "They'll kill me if they find out I'm here!" 

"I'm with Ulfric, alright?" Keolah said. "I support the Stormcloaks!" She timidly lifted her head up above the furniture as Avulstein lowered his weapon. 

"Why would a high elf want to support the Stormcloaks?" Avulstein wondered. 

"Ulfric is a good man! He helped me and he saved my life," Keolah said. 

Avulstein looked at her appraisingly for a long moment before nodding tersely and putting his axe away. "Alright. Fine. So you want to help find my brother?" 

"Absolutely," Keolah said. 

"I know he still lives, and the Imperials are holding him captive somewhere. And I think the Battle-Borns might have some proof in their house that they've been lying about this the entire time. If you can find it, and find out where, we would be grateful." 

Keolah nodded. "I'll see what I can do." 

Outside the house, she ran across a man in robes who seemed to be preaching. "Have you come to hear the word of Talos?" 

"You're awfully open with your worship," Keolah said. "I'm surprised the Thalmor haven't gotten you yet." 

"I do not fear the Thalmor. Let them come! Talos will protect me! Wait, you aren't with the Thalmor yourself, are you, high elf?" 

"Oh, no no no no. No way. I wouldn't even want to _dress_ like those scum." 

"I'm glad to hear that," the Nord man said. "It heartens me to think that even a high elf might honor the wisdom of Talos. He was the greatest of the Nords! He united all of Tamriel! And he was so great that when he died, the Divines themselves rose him up to be their new lord!" 

"Yes, certainly," Keolah agreed hurriedly. "I'd love to stay and chat all night about Talos, but I do have things to do. Perhaps another time. Farewell." 

She quickly ducked into the nearest building. This was a large hall with a table around a warm hearth, covered in delicious smelling food that reminded her that she hadn't eaten yet today. However, off to one side of the room, a brawl appeared to be going on at the moment. 

"Maybe I've come at a bad time," Keolah murmured. 

Well, they appeared to be pretty distracted at the moment, and she was awfully hungry. Surely they wouldn't notice a sweetroll going missing. She quietly crept over to the table and swiped one off of it, and began munching on the delicious pastry. 

A large Nord tapped her on the shoulder. "I think you've been taking things that don't belong to you." 

Keolah looked up, crumbs falling from her mouth. "I'm sorry. I was hungry, and I didn't think anyone would notice." 

"Pay up, and we'll forget about this, alright?" 

"I suppose just giving it back isn't an option?" Keolah said. 

"You've already eaten half of it!" the Nord said. 

Keolah pulled a couple of septims out of her money pouch and handed them over to him. "There. Will that suffice?" 

"Good enough. I'm sure this won't happen again." 

For all that, she figured that she might as well quietly finish her sweetroll in peace. On the other side of the room, the brawl was ending and the small crowd breaking up. Keolah licked her fingers and went over to chat. 

"Ah, new blood, huh? Hope you know how to handle yourself," said one of them. 

"What is this place, anyway? Is this an inn?" 

"Nah, this is Jorrvaskr, the mead-hall of the Companions," the Nord replied. 

"Who?" Keolah wondered. 

"The finest group of warriors in all of Skyrim." 

"Oh," Keolah said. "I see." 

This didn't really seem to be her sort of thing, and she was somewhat embarrassed about the sweetroll incident, so she decided to leave, and then proceeded to get turned around and go through the wrong door. She wound up in a small office of some sort, with a couple of bookshelves and a desk. On top of the desk, there was a large, curved tusk from some large animal. Probably a mammoth. 

"Hmm," Keolah said thoughtfully. Didn't somebody in town want a mammoth tusk for something or other? Quietly, she closed the door behind her so that nobody would see her pick it up, and grabbed the tusk. It was awfully large and unwieldy, but she hauled it carefully to the door, opened it again and guided it through. 

"Where do you think you're going with that?" said the Nord who'd confronted her about the sweetroll before. 

"Huh?" Keolah said. "What are you talking about?" 

"That mammoth tusk. You stole that, too, didn't you?" 

"You didn't see me take it!" Keolah insisted. 

"Maybe not, but you didn't have a mammoth tusk when you came in, and now you have a mammoth tusk and the one that was sitting on the desk is missing." 

"You can't prove it was me!" Keolah said. 

The Nord looked at her like she was insane. She was used to that sort of look. "You're standing there, holding the tusk! How much more proof do I need?" 

"But you didn't see me pick it up," Keolah said. 

"It looks like we've got ourselves the worst thief in Whiterun," another man said dryly. 

"Would it be better if I came back to try to swipe it again later after everyone's gone to sleep?" Keolah asked. 

An older man laughed aloud at that. "I'll give you points for boldness, if nothing else, elf. Tell you what, if you want that tusk so badly. If you can make it out of the mead-hall with that thing with all of us trying to stop you, you can keep it." 

"Okay," Keolah said. 

Gripping the mammoth tusk tightly, she darted away from the group of Nords (plus one dark elf) who were almost surrounding her by that point. She ran over to the table and jumped over the hearth, very nearly catching herself on fire as she did so. 

"Get the high elf!" 

"I'll sit on you!" 

The Companions seemed to be taking this all to be good fun. They didn't seem all that concerned about the theft. As they gathered to try to keep her from slipping out through the front door, she managed to scramble out through the back way instead. She didn't expect the back porch to be cluttered with chairs and tables, however, and tripped over a chair leg. Keolah went sprawling to the ground, the tusk flying out of her hands and tumbling several feet away. 

A Nord came out of the mead-hall, laughing. They were mocking her, and rightly so. "You're a good sport. A bad thief, but a good sport." He helped her to her feet. 

"Um. Thanks," Keolah said, brushing herself off. 

"Run along now. Oh, and if you try to steal from us again, we might try to stop you with weapons next time." 

"I'll... keep that in mind, thanks," Keolah said. She picked up the mammoth tusk and ran off before they could change their minds. 

After finding the woman who had wanted the tusk and getting it off her hands for some septims, she went off to find the Battle-Born residence. It was after dark by the time she found it, and she'd annoyed a few citizens by knocking on the wrong doors before somebody finally gave her directions that she could follow. Namely, pointing and saying, "It's right there!" 

Keolah knocked on the door to House Battle-Born, and a Nord came to answer the door. "Hello? You're not selling something, are you?" 

"Selling something?" Keolah repeated. "Well, I suppose I do have a few things I'd like to get rid of if you're interested." 

"We're not interested!" Battle-Born said, and closed the door in her face. 

"How rude," Keolah muttered. "If he didn't want to buy anything, why did he ask?" 

Well, if they weren't going to let her in, she'd just have to let herself in. This looked like a job for... the worst thief in Whiterun! Keolah quietly crept around toward the back of the house. 

"Are you trying to hide?" drawled the town drunk. "Cause I can see you plain as day." 

"Hush," Keolah said. 

"Weren't you going to get me some ale from the inn?" 

"I'll get it in a bit, alright?" Keolah whispered. "I'll even bring you extra if you can make a distraction for me. Get the guards to look the other way." 

"Oh, sure, I can do that," the drunk said. "But you'll owe me!" 

As the drunk went off to make some noise for the guards, Keolah broke in the back door of House Battle-Born. There was nobody in the main room now. So far so good. Now, what had that one said in the market? They were keeping him prisoner in the cellar? Hmm, where might the cellar be? 

Keolah went to look around, and promptly got distracted by the kitchen. There was venison, cheese, bread, potatoes, pie... her stomach rumbled as she passed it. No, now wasn't the time to be getting distracted. She had work to do here. And then she saw the sweetroll, and snatched it up in the blink of an eye. Surely they wouldn't miss one sweetroll. 

After hiding in a corner and quietly munching on the sweetroll, she returned to searching the house, and promptly tripped over a cauldron, sending it clattering across the floor. Oops. Surely somebody had to have heard that. Keolah hid and froze for several long moments, but nobody came running. They must be fast asleep. Breathing a sigh of relief, she headed out to search some more. 

She stepped into a bedroom with a woman asleep on the bed. Carefully she tried to creep along without waking her, resulting in her bumping into the desk and sending things scattering to the floor. 

The woman mumbled, half-asleep, "Watch what you're doing, Lars! Be more careful!" 

"Sorry, mother," Keolah said quietly, and the woman proceeded to go back to sleep. 

There was a locked door at the far side of the room. Surely that would lead into the cellar. Hmm, but how to get it open? Keolah pulled out some lockpicks and started to get to work on it. She wasn't very good at this, however. One by one, all the tools she had that might work as lockpicks snapped. 

"Oh, bother," Keolah muttered under her breath. "Forget this." 

The door was made of wood. Wood burned. She called up her magic and set the door on fire. The woman remained asleep, at least until Keolah kicked through the flaming door to get to the other side when it didn't burn through fast enough. 

There wasn't any cellar on the other side, but a small office. So much for thinking of rescuing the Gray-Mane lad. If he was in this house, it wasn't here. Keolah frantically searched through the office looking for anything else that might be useful. 

"What's going on?" came shouts from outside the room. "The house is on fire!" 

No time for subtlety. Keolah grabbed every scrap of paper on the desk and shoved them in her bag, and leapt out through the flaming door. 

"What is that elf doing in here? Get her!" 

Keolah raced out through the main room, flicking fire spells left and right to set a few more things ablaze to distract her pursuers. She stumbled over the hearth, shoved a pie and a bottle of mead into her bag, and barely made it out the back door in front of a handful of angry Nords. 

"I thought you were just going to rob the place, not burn it down!" the town drunk said, meeting her outside after she'd lost the Battle-Borns. "You're on fire, by the way." 

"Ack!" Keolah said, smothering the flaming ends of her hair. "Well, I grabbed something for you along the way, anyhow." She handed him the mead. 

"Thanks kindly. Best part ways before the guards show up." 

Keolah slipped in the back door of House Gray-Mane, making sure to stay out of sight as best as possible. Which, she admitted, was not very good. 

"What did you do, Elf?" wondered Avulstein. "We saw the fire from here!" 

"We just wanted you to look for evidence, not burn down their house!" Fralia said. 

"Um... It was an accident? Sort of? Partially?" Keolah said, pulling out the stolen pie and munching on it. "I mean, I was just trying to burn a door down, not the whole house. Besides, most of it's probably made out of stone anyway." 

Avulstein snorted softly. "Well, they had it coming, anyway. Did you find any evidence?" 

Keolah pulled out the papers she'd grabbed out of her bag. "Let's see. Shopping list, something about their young child being bullied by a girl, important looking Imperial missive..." 

"Let me see that!" Avulstein said, grabbing it and scanning over it. "The Thalmor? Northwatch Keep? By Talos, this is worse than I thought!" 

"It's probably about the whole Talos thing," Keolah said lightly. 

"Well, yeah, most likely," Avulstein said. "Still, we'll march and assault Northwatch Keep. You'll join us, I hope?" 

"You're going to just attack the place?" Keolah said. "Surely there's a better way to do it." 

"You don't mean to try diplomacy with the Thalmor, do you?" 

"Nah, don't be silly. This is the Thalmor we're talking about," Keolah said, snickering softly. "No, I was thinking of sneaking him out with my mad stealth skills." 

Avulstein looked out the window. There were shouts outside, smoke rising from House Battle-Born, flames flicking in the window. "You know, now that you mention it, I don't think I'd want my men there when you set the place on fire anyway. Just do try to get my brother out alive and not too badly singed, alright?" 

"I'll see what I can do," Keolah said brightly. 

It was already pretty late, so Keolah headed over to the inn, whistling a little as she went. Guards ignored her as they ran past, and people were trying to get the fire out, hauling buckets from the river to try to douse it. 

The local inn was called the Bannered Mare, and looked to be a comfortable enough place. She went up to the woman behind the bar and said, "Do you have actual beds here? That aren't made of stone?" 

The innkeeper chuckled and said, "You've been to Markarth, haven't you. Yes, we have real beds here. Looking for a room for the night?" 

"Oh, thank the Divines," Keolah said. "Yes, please." 

She paid for her room, and turned around to see the town drunk sitting on a bench by the hearth. He winked at her. Right, she was going to try to swipe some ale for him. 

Keolah nonchalantly strolled into the kitchen, looked around to make sure nobody was there, grabbed a bottle of ale, and returned to him. Easy enough. "Here you go." 

"Thanks," the drunk said. "But this isn't Argonian ale. It's just regular, cheap ale." 

"Oh? Oops." She went back to the kitchen, retrieved another bottle, and brought it back to him. 

"Thanks, but this is Nord mead." 

"I really don't know my alcohol." She went back into the kitchen and returned with another bottle. 

"And this is wine," the drunk said. He seemed to be perfectly happy to keep her mistakes, however. 

"Sorry," Keolah said. She went and brought back another bottle. 

"Beer." 

And another bottle. 

"I don't even _know_ what this stuff is." He opened it up to try it anyway. 

Back to the kitchen again for another attempt. 

"Aha! Now _this_ is the good stuff!" the drunk said. "Argonian ale... mmm..." 

"You're welcome," Keolah said brightly. 

As she headed upstairs to her room, however, the guards burst into the inn. "Halt! You have committed crimes against the jarl and the hold!" 

"I didn't do it," said the drunk. 

"Not you!" the guard said. "The high elf!" 

"What did I do?" Keolah said. "I mean, that I got caught with." 

The guard glared at her. "Arson. Do you have anything _else_ you'd like to confess while we're at it?" 

"Can you prove it was me?" Keolah asked. 

"The Battle-Borns gave a very clear description of the high elf who set fire to their house and was seen fleeing the scene of the crime," the guard said. "Also, your hair is slightly singed." 

Keolah sighed. "Fine. I'll come along quietly. I guess I'll be spending the night in a cell rather than the inn." She went over to the innkeeper. "Can I get a refund on my room? I'm being arrested." 

The woman stared at her for a moment, but handed back her coins. Keolah then went off quietly with the guards. She had no particular desire to attempt to fight her way out of this. 

"Smart woman. Come along with us." 

Keolah wasn't too thrilled about spending the night in a cell, either. However, when they arrived at the keep and she was deposited in the dungeon, she found that it was still more comfortable than the inn in Markarth. At least the cot wasn't made of stone. 


	5. Bleak Falls Barrow

Keolah strode out of the dungeon after collecting her possessions from the nice guards again, a free elf. She was surprised by how short a sentence they had for arson. Semi-accidental arson, at least. Well, she wasn't about to complain. She'd have had to break out if she got bored, after all. 

As she climbed out of the dungeon and into the keep, she overheard talking from a man in a big chair, the jarl most likely, speaking with another man, although she didn't quite catch what they were saying. She remembered that she was supposed to talk to the jarl and deliver a message, and went over to approach him. 

"What is the meaning of this interruption?" said a dark elf woman, intercepting her. 

"I have an urgent message for the jarl," Keolah said. 

"You just came out of the dungeons," the dark elf pointed out. "How urgent could it be?" 

"Well... maybe I just forgot to deliver it before being arrested," Keolah replied. "I got a little sidetracked. But it really _is_ important!" 

The dark elf sighed. "And what, praytell, do you have to tell Jarl Balgruuf that's so important?" 

"Um... there's dragons on the loose attacking places!" Keolah said. 

"Yes, we've figured that out already. Is that all?" 

"I totally saw one right up close!" Keolah said. "And it set me on fire! And then the woman who runs the mill at that village to the south, whatsit, Riverrun, Rainywood, whatever, she sent me here to ask the jarl for assistance. Said the village was defenseless if a dragon showed up." 

"Riverwood, you mean?" the dark elf said. "And you were at Helgen, or what?" 

Keolah nodded. "Yes, Helgen, that's the place." 

"The jarl will want to speak to you personally, then. Step forward. But don't make me regret this." 

"Right, of course," Keolah said, approaching the jarl's throne and giving a polite bow. "Jarl Balgruuf." 

"So, you were at Helgen, you say?" Balgruuf said. "You saw this dragon with your own eyes?" 

"Oh, yes," Keolah said. "There I was, about to get my head chopped off by the Imperials, when this dragon swooped in and burned the whole place to the ground! And then knocked over some of what wouldn't burn, which was most of it, to be honest. You Nords and your stone." 

"It's not my concern who the Imperials want to execute, but what were you doing in my dungeon?" Balgruuf wondered. 

"Oh, that. Um. I kind of burned down House Battle-Born. Completely, mostly, partially by accident." 

Balgruuf sighed. "If a high elf wants to fight for the Stormcloaks, that's your own business, but I'll appreciate if you kept the war outside my walls for the time being, if you would?" 

"Sorry," Keolah said sheepishly. 

"Irileth," Balgruuf said, turning to the dark elf woman. "Send a detachment to Riverwood at once. If that dragon pays them a visit, I'll not leave them without a single blade or arrow to defend themselves with. I won't stand idly by while dragons run rampant in my lands." 

"Yes, my jarl," Irileth said, bowing to him and turning to leave. 

"But what if the jarl of Falkreath views it as a threat?" said the steward. "He might think you're planning to fight for Ulfric and invade his lands!" 

Keolah snorted softly. "Oh, come on. Dragons! Put a bow in every hand and maybe you'll stand a chance. Do I need to go talk to the jarl of Falkreath next as well?" 

"That won't be necessary," Balgruuf said. "In fact, I have another... non-diplomatic task that may be suited for your particular... destructive talents. And get you out of trouble and away from my city for a while. Let us go speak with my court wizard, Farengar." 

Jarl Balgruuf stood and gestured at her to follow as he went off into a chamber off to the side of the main hall. This room was full of books, gems, and magical apparati, and a rush of excitement swelled up in her as she realized that this was the domain of an experienced wizard. Maybe she could even learn something from him. 

"Farengar," Balgruuf said, coming up to the table and leaning on his hands against it. "I think I've found someone who can help you on your dragon project." 

"Oh?" Farengar said, looking over Keolah uncertainly. "She doesn't look like much. Tell me she's at least a mage or something." 

"I'm a mage!" Keolah said. "I can burn down whatever you want me to! I mean, I can help in whatever way you want me to..." 

Farengar chuckled softly. "Well, you're in luck that what I need is assistance of a more combative nature. I need someone to go into an old Nord tomb and retrieve an ancient stone tablet that may or may not even be there." 

"I thought you said this had something to do with dragons," Keolah said dubiously. 

"Oh, it does," Farengar went on. "This tablet, called a Dragonstone, contains a map of ancient dragon burial sites. I believe there's much that may be learned from this." 

"Oh! Okay," Keolah said. "Where am I going and what am I burning, then?" 

"Bleak Falls Barrow," Farengar replied. 

Keolah scrunched up her face in thought. "That's the spooky place near that village to the south, isn't it." 

"Indeed. You're familiar with it I take it? Then I don't need to give you directions." 

"If you gave me directions, I'd just wind up getting lost anyway," Keolah replied. "In fact, I think I'll tag along with those soldiers that are heading south so that I don't get lost on the way to the village." 

Farengar looked at Balgruuf, raising an eyebrow, and said, "Are you certain that she's competent?" 

"No, not really," Balgruuf replied. "But she survived Helgen, so she must have the luck of the Divines themselves. And I'd much rather have her out there, burning things, than in here, burning things." He turned and went back toward his throne. 

"So," Keolah said, looking back at Farengar. "Before I go, do you happen to have anything you're willing to teach me? Any spellbooks for sale?" 

"Yes, of course," Farengar said, gesturing to a bookshelf. "Take a look, and let me know what you'd like." 

"Ah! Firebolt! Fire rune!" Keolah said, grabbing eagerly at the books. 

"You know, you might want to learn something that _isn't_ fire-based, in case you ever run across anything that just shrugs off fire magic." 

Keolah frowned. "Are dragons immune to fire? Oh, bother, alright, I'll take Lightning Bolt as well. But I think you're just trying to take all my gold." 

"Madam, if I were trying to do that, I'd suggest to you the wonderful array of spells that _aren't_ purely destructive in nature," Farengar said. 

"I can do those, too!" Keolah said. "I'm pretty good at healing magic, too! Well, I mainly use it to heal all of my own silly self-inflicted wounds, but still." 

Farengar stared at her for a moment as she paid for the books, and finally said, "You know, maybe it's best if you just hurried along to Bleak Falls Barrow..." 

"Oh, yes. I'll be back in no time with that dragon rock map thing! Thanks for the books!" She waved happily to him and practically skipped out of the keep, opening up one of the books to read along the way. 

The dark elf housecarl, Irileth, was speaking to a group of guards by the city gates as Keolah approached. "I don't expect the three of you to fight off a dragon by yourselves." 

"But I'll help if I'm there!" Keolah said brightly, looking up from her book. "I just learned how to throw lightning bolts! And I might just manage to hit the dragon, too, and not accidentally electrocute anyone I'm not supposed to!" 

Irileth and the three soldiers all looked at her as if they were more concerned about her than the dragons. The dark elf woman cleared her throat and turned back to the men without responding to that. "If a dragon shows up, I want you to try to get people to safety. Try to keep anyone from getting killed if you can." 

The soldiers marched out of the gates and headed down the road, casting occasional nervous glances toward Keolah, who was following them. 

"How far is it to Riverrun, anyway?" Keolah asked. 

"Riverwood," corrected a soldier. "It's just a few miles." 

The soldiers didn't make it easy for her to keep up, however. Every time she stopped to try to pick flowers -- that is, collect alchemical ingredients -- they seemed to step up their pace, and she had to hurry to catch up with them again. 

"If you're not careful, you'll wind up leaving me behind!" Keolah said. 

"We could be so fortunate," the soldier muttered. 

They passed by farms and walked down the road along the river, and it didn't take too long before they arrived at Riverwood. It wasn't even noon yet. Which was just as well, as it had started to rain again just as they were leaving Whiterun, and Keolah had forgotten to ask the court wizard if he had any spells to keep the rain off. 

She passed Gerdur on the way over to her house. "Ah! My high elf friend! I see you got word to Jarl Balgruuf. You have my thanks." 

Keolah smiled and waved at her as she went into the house. Ralof was sitting at the table in the kitchen area, drinking from a tankard. There was a kettle of stew slowly simmering by the fire, whose delicious scents reminded Keolah that she hadn't eaten anything yet today. 

"Ah, Keolah, you're back," Ralof said, giving her a forced smile. 

"Stew! With meat in it!" Keolah said, excitedly helping herself to a bowl. "After I get something to eat and dry off a little, I'm heading up to that spooky barrow. Of course it had to stop raining right as I got back to the village." 

"Why would you want to go in there?" Ralof wondered. 

"I don't," Keolah said. "But somebody wanted something from there, and it was supposed to be important for some reason, and I'm not really sure why I agreed to it, honestly." 

"So, what, do you intend to take on all the Draugr in there by yourself?" 

"Why, are you offering to help?" Keolah said. 

"Well, if it's important..." Ralof said. 

"I'll be happy to have you along!" Keolah said brightly. "And I'll even try not to incinerate _or_ electrocute you, too!" 

Ralof groaned softly and muttered under his breath, "Why did I just do that..." 

"I'm sure there will be plenty of treasure to be found in the old crypt," Keolah said. "I'm not very strong, so I could really use your help in carrying it out!" 

Ralof stared at her for a long moment, slumped his shoulders, and said, "Oh." 

Keolah gobbled down the remainder of her stew and headed for the door. Ralof sighed and grabbed his sword, and followed after her. 

Ralof wound up leading the way out of the village as Keolah pulled out a book to read now that it wasn't raining. He skewered several wolves with his sword before they could get to her. She was far too excited about learning the secrets of making exploding runes to notice, however. At least up until an arrow impaled itself through her book with a _thunk_. 

"Huh?" Keolah said, looking up toward an old tower just ahead. "Who did that? Now that was just rude." 

She raised her hand to shoot several bolts of lightning up toward the tower. Although she couldn't make out any figures moving around up there, she was sure some bandits had to be up there and attacking her. 

"You picked a bad time to get lost, friend!" yelled a bandit. 

Keolah sent a lightning bolt straight at him now that she could tell where he was, and he fell over, dead. "I'm not lost. I'm exactly where I intended to be. Well, this time at least." 

Between her and Ralof, they made short work of the group of bandits who were infesting the old tower. 

"It's okay to kill people and take their stuff if they're bandits or Thalmor," Keolah said lightly, collecting some coins from the bandits. 

"For a high elf, you certainly don't seem to like the Thalmor very much," Ralof said. 

"No, I don't," Keolah said cheerfully. 

"Not that I can really blame you or anything. It just seems a little weird to me." 

"Do you like every Nord?" Keolah asked. 

"No, I see your point," Ralof replied. 

As they left the tower, Keolah spotted movement out of the corner of her eye, and reflexively cast a lightning bolt toward it. "What was that? More bandits?" 

"That was a rabbit," Ralof said. 

Keolah charged down the path as the rabbit was hopping away. "DIE BUNNY!" She shot lightning wildly toward it. 

By the time she finally managed to hit the rabbit, Keolah was exhausted, panting, and out of magicka. She paused and rested against her knees as Ralof ran up behind her. 

"Fortunately, you managed to run off in the direction we were supposed to be going..." Ralof said. 

"It got awfully cold all of a sudden," Keolah commented. 

"Well, we _are_ on top of a mountain," Ralof said. 

"It's snowing," Keolah said, looking up. "I don't think my dress dried completely, and now it's frozen. Argh!" She called forth fire to her hands to try to warm herself up again. 

"Let's get inside," Ralof said. "It looks like the barrow is just ahead. It probably won't be any warmer in there, but at least it'll be out of the wind." 

Keolah nodded and followed him up the rest of the way, and stepped inside the ornate black doors. It _was_ warmer inside, by virtue of the fact that some bandits had set up a campfire and were still around it. When they heard the huge door creak open, the bandits came to attack them. 

"Oh, come on, are you going to make me drink a potion?" Keolah groaned. 

"I'll take care of them," Ralof said. "There's only two of them." He drew his sword and intercepted the bandits. 

"But I really should help," Keolah said. 

"No, no! That's quite alright!" Ralof said, parrying an attack. "You just stay back there and let me rescue you!" 

"I think I've got enough magicka back now," Keolah said. 

"No, wait!" 

Keolah raised her hands and a sheet of flames erupted from them, engulfing everything in front of her. The bandits were dead, and Ralof turned around to glare at her, slightly smoldering. 

"Keolah!" Ralof scolded. 

"Oops, sorry," Keolah said, healing him quickly. 

"Alright, no more helping from me," Ralof said. "I'm just going to stand behind you and... um.. watch your back. Make sure nothing sneaks up on you." 

"Okay!" Keolah said. 

They rested a bit at the fire before continuing on into the barrow. Ralof kept his distance now, sword ready and still alert for a fight, but staying a fair bit behind Keolah. "I must have been really bored or something," Ralof muttered. 

"Huh, what's this?" Keolah said, zapping another bandit and stepping into a room. "A portcullis, a lever, pillars with symbols, and a bandit who was obviously too dumb to figure out how to open it." 

"Uh..." Ralof said, peering about the room. 

Keolah proceeded to spin around the symbol pillars repeatedly, jerking at the lever over and over, but failing to get the gate open. 

"Maybe you should turn them to the symbols that are above the gate," Ralof suggested, pointing. 

"That would be entirely too obvious," Keolah said. "Who would go to the trouble of locking something, but putting the solution to it right in front of you?" 

Ralof went over and spun the pillars to match the symbols, pulled the lever, and the gate opened. 

Keolah blinked. "Alright, the ancient Nords were morons. I suppose that stands to reason. The _current_ Nords are morons." 

Ralof smirked at her. 

"Present company excepted, of course," Keolah said brightly. 

"Thank you," Ralof drawled. "Let's move on. You can take out your annoyance on the shambling ancient Nords deeper in the barrow." 

They headed down a staircase to the next level. A voice could be heard calling for help somewhere ahead. There were quite a lot of large, thick spiderwebs adorning this stretch of corridor. Keolah even had to burn through some of them that were blocking a doorway. 

"Ugh, spiders," Ralof muttered. 

"Help! Help!" called a man's voice. "Oh no, don't let it get me again!" 

The biggest spider Keolah had ever seen dropped down from the ceiling in front of her. 

"Die, you horrible thing!" Keolah screamed, channeling flames straight at it. The spider didn't go down easily, however, and it took nearly a minute of sustained casting before it finally collapsed. 

"You know," Ralof mused, "I think I'd feel better about this if we'd stuck to me killing things and you healing me." 

"Get me down!" cried the bandit who was thoroughly entangled in a spiderweb. "Come on, cut me down!" 

"Give me a minute," Keolah said, proceeding to casually collect spider eggs and loot the dessicated corpses around the room for coins that the spider had obviously not cared about. 

"Oh, come on! You can get that afterward! I'm stuck up here!" He flailed futilely. "What about you?" he addressed Ralof. "You'll get me down, surely?" 

"You're another bandit, aren't you?" Ralof said. "I think you can just hang in there for a minute more." 

"Besides, how did you even get in here?" Keolah wondered. "The door was closed." 

"Argh! Did you come here for the golden claw? I can tell you all about the old stories, the secrets of this barrow! Just cut me down first!" 

"Golden claw?" Keolah said in puzzlement. "Oh yeah, the one that was stolen from the trader in Riverrun, wasn't it?" 

"Riverwood," Ralof corrected. 

"I'll get you right down," Keolah said. 

She raised her hands and sent forth another burst of flames to burn through the webs. The bandit screamed, and he fell to the floor, motionless. 

"Oh, oops," Keolah said. 

"Oops? You just killed someone!" Ralof said. "Although, admittedly, he was a bandit and was probably going to just backstab us anyway. I don't think anyone's going to miss him." 

Keolah poked at the body and pulled forth a solid gold dragon's claw. "This must have been what he was talking about." 

Further on, they came upon ancient crypts where the dead got up to attack them. Keolah had been prepared for this, however, and calmly roasted them as they slowly shambled to their feet. 

"I was expecting something a little more threatening," Keolah said. "Hey, we should take back some of these old swords and axes and sell them." 

"Why bother?" Ralof wondered. 

"They're antiques! They're probably worth a fortune!" 

"They're junk. Nobody would want to buy these old things." 

Keolah pouted a little and moved on. As she was leaving the room, something clicked at her feet, and something large and spiked slammed into her. 

"Ow!" Keolah said, stumbling back. "I do not like Mr. Mashy Spike Plate." 

She tried going through the doorway again, and got hit by the spike plate again. Muttering to herself, she staggered back away from it and healed herself. 

"Try carefully stepping around the pressure plate," Ralof suggested with a sigh, pointing to the floor. "It's that circular thing on the ground." 

"Where?" Keolah said, peering at the floor. 

"Right there!" Ralof said. "It's round, and has swirls on it?" He went over and waved his hands around it. 

"I still don't see anything," Keolah said, but she carefully stepped forward and avoided the spot he was so worried about anyway. 

"Why did I ever agree to come into an undead-infested barrow with a near-sighted pyromaniac elf?" Ralof muttered. 

They rushed past a swinging blade trap, and then down the next corridor, Keolah burned another Draugr and suddenly found herself surrounded by flames. Ralof grabbed her around the waist and dragged her back to safety. 

"What happened?" Keolah wondered, batting herself out. "Why's the hallway on fire?" 

"There's oil spilled all over the floor," Ralof said. "Didn't you see it? What am I saying, of course you didn't see it." He smirked. 

"Why are there so many traps and things down here?" 

"The ancient Nords did so love filling their barrows with traps of all sorts," Ralof replied. 

"Why bother?" Keolah said. "We haven't even come across anything really worth stealing as it is. Unless... unless there's something _really_ good later on!" She brightened immediately. 

Further on, they came upon an underground river, around which a number of glowing mushrooms lined the walls. 

"Ooh! Mushrooms!" Keolah said, rushing forward to harvest as many of them as she could reach. 

"We're going to be down here all day, aren't we," Ralof said dryly. 

"Wait," Keolah said. "Why is there an underground river in a tomb at the top of a mountain?" 

"Don't look at me. I just kill things." 

Past a few more traps and undead, they came upon a room with a large door at the far end, with an intendation that looked much like the golden claw they'd taken from the thief. 

"Hmm," Ralof said, examining the door. "I've heard of these. I think we need to turn the symbols to the proper positions to open the door." 

"And they aren't just obviously in display above the door!" Keolah said. "Maybe the ancient Nords weren't completely hopeless after all." She proceeded to start switching symbols and trying different combinations. 

"There's got to be some indication of what the solution might be," Ralof said. 

"If they were smart, they'd have just remembered it, and only let the people who were supposed to go down here know!" Keolah said. 

"But... oh, never mind," Ralof said, sighing and looking around the room as Keolah proceeded to try every possible combination at the door before one of them finally, eventually worked. 

"Got it!" Keolah said triumphantly, passing the claw off to Ralof to carry. 

Ralof glanced at it and said, "Keolah! The solution was on the palm of the claw!" 

Keolah blinked at him and went over to peer at it. "I revise my assessment. The ancient Nords were still morons. Although, at least this door had a key to it, of sorts, I suppose..." 

Beyond the door, there was a wide chamber with a shaft in the roof letting in bright sunlight, and Keolah had to squint a little after crawling through the barrow lit primarily by glowing mushrooms and her own Mage Light. She walked through in hushed reverence, realizing that they'd reached the inner chamber at last, and crossed the bridge over a trickling stream. 

Keolah's eyes were drawn to a wall at the top of the stairs. A dark mist clouded her vision, and something inexplicable stirred in her blood. There were words carved into the wall that reminded her a little of scratches made by enormous claws. She almost felt like she should be able to understand it, but the meaning was just out of her grasp. And one of the words was glowing, outlined in a radiant blue. 

"Fus?" Keolah murmured in puzzlement as the light faded and her vision returned to normal. 

"What?" Ralof wondered. 

"Did you see that?" Keolah asked. 

"See what?" 

"The words were glowing," Keolah said, pointing to the wall. 

Ralof looked at her strangely. "You haven't been eating those mushrooms, have you?" 

Keolah opened her mouth to reply, but the coffin behind them opened up and a Draugr started climbing out. She spun around and gave it a face full of burning death. When it stopped moving, she searched the area for loot, and found a strange rock with something scrawled on it. 

"Was that what you came here for?" Ralof asked. 

"I dunno. Maybe? I think? Well, it better be, at any rate." 

Ralof nodded. "Let's collect the treasure and get out of here, then." 

"Let's look behind the waterfall!" Keolah said excitedly, scrambling over the rocks. 

"Why?" Ralof wondered. 

"There's always something behind the waterfall!" 

"That's just silly," Ralof said. 

Keolah climbed to the top of the rocks and triumphantly opened the chest behind the waterfall. "Treasure!" 

"Okay, so there _was_ something behind the waterfall after all," Ralof said, blinking. 

There was a passage behind the main chamber leading up and away, but it came to a dead end after a short ways. 

"It doesn't look like there's any way through here," Keolah said. 

Ralof sighed and pulled the handle that was next to the wall, and the rock slid away, opening a way out. 

"Oh," Keolah said. "I totally didn't see that there." 

"Of course you didn't," Ralof said. "Looks like a back way out." 

"Why couldn't we have just come in this way, then?" Keolah wondered as they walked out, and then staggered to a halt as the exit put them on the edge of a cliff. "Who would _put_ a passageway in such a place?" 

"I guess they were really intent upon making this exit-only," Ralof said. 

It was late when they got back to Riverwood, and as they approached the village again, Keolah said, "Why don't you head to the trader and sell off the loot and return that claw?" 

"You don't want to come and collect the reward for yourself?" Ralof said. 

"Keolah!" called a voice from the door to the trader. It was Camilla Valerius. 

"Nope, sorry, gotta run," Keolah said. "I'll meet you in Whiterun, 'kay?" 

"Wait, you're leaving town _now_? It's after sunset already!" 

"Did you bring back the claw?" Camilla called out, waving. "I heard you were heading up that way. You're my greatest hero, Keolah!" 

"Yep, leaving now," Keolah said, rushing off to the Whiterun road. Perhaps when she got back to deliver the Dragonstone, she should see if Farengar had any invisibility spells for sale. 


	6. Dragonborn

Keolah strode down the road toward Whiterun. It was a lovely evening, although she was somewhat tired from the long day. 

There were luna moths perched on top of a dead tree by the side of the road. How lovely! She thought she should come out at night more often. She jumped up and tried to catch them, but couldn't quite reach them. After spending several minutes of trying to grab them, she realized that they weren't moving. They were leaves, not moths. Oh, bother. She moved on. 

The road wound near some buildings and came to a pair of bridges. Which way had she come this morning when she was going to Riverwood? She didn't think she'd crossed a bridge here, but she couldn't be sure. She waved down a nearby guard. 

"Is there trouble, Elf?" the guard asked. 

"No, I was just looking for directions to Whitehelm. Whiterun, Whiterun, that's it." 

"Whiterun," the guard said with a smirk, and pointed. "It's right over there. See those lights on that hill over there?" 

Keolah squinted in that direction. "No, sorry, I can't see anything." 

"I suppose it's dark and all, but I thought elves were supposed to have good eyesight." 

Keolah snorted. "I thought Nords were supposed to have beards! Even the women! And then I come here to Skyrim and what do I see? Not everyone has a beard!" 

The guard chuckled softly. "I suppose you've got a point. Anyway, just head down that road, and turn right at the stables." 

"Turn right at the stables," Keolah repeated slowly. 

"That is, when you smell horses, go that way." 

"Okay. Thanks," Keolah said, waved, and walked off in that direction. 

As she passed by a farm, she came upon a group of warriors standing around the corpse of a fallen giant in the midst of a potato patch. 

"Well, that's done," said the woman warrior. "No thanks to you." She looked to Keolah. 

"Huh? What did I do?" Keolah wondered. 

"Nothing," the woman replied. 

"So what's the problem?" 

"You didn't help kill it." 

Keolah looked down at the corpse. "It was already dead when I got here. Besides, it doesn't seem like you really needed my help..." 

"A true warrior would seek glory no matter what!" the woman said. 

"I wouldn't exactly call myself a true warrior," Keolah replied. "For one thing, I'm a mage." 

"A mage can still be a true warrior! You just need to conduct yourself with honor." 

"If you say so," Keolah said with a shrug. "Hmm, say, aren't giant's toes used in alchemy?" She went over to examine the giant's feet. 

"Only the left big toes are." 

"That's silly," Keolah said. "What's so special about the left big toe? And more importantly, why is this giant missing his left big toe? Did you take it already?" 

"For some reason, giants seem to be missing toes sometimes..." 

"What, do giants get their toes nibbled off by squirrels while they sleep or something?" Keolah wondered. 

The woman warrior did not dignify that comment with a response. "Oh, now I recognize you. You're that amusing high elf. The one who took that mammoth tusk from our mead-hall. I'm Ria, of the Companions. If you're ever interested in putting forth your combative skills, magical or otherwise, for the sake of honor and glory, come see the Companions." 

"Um... I'll think about it," Keolah said. 

"We'd best be heading back to town now," Ria said. 

"I'll come along with you, if you don't mind," Keolah said. "I wouldn't want to get lost." 

Ria looked at her strangely. "But... Whiterun is _right there_." She pointed. 

"I still don't see anything," Keolah said. 

"Oh, never mind," Ria sighed. "Come with us, if you want, then." 

Keolah followed the warriors off down the road and past the stables, and up to the gates of Whiterun. She was quite proud of herself for actually getting here expediently this time, and not getting lost along the way. Of course, she would have hoped Ralof would have said something if she had been leaving the village by the wrong direction this time. 

She heard someone coughing off to one side, and went over to see a guard standing watch. 

"I used to be an adventurer like you," the guard said to her. "Then I took an arrow in the knee." 

"Oh," Keolah said dumbly. "That must have hurt. Why didn't you just get it healed, though?" 

The guard glared at her, and she decided to move on before someone found a reason to arrest her again. 

Keolah made her way to the inn and headed inside. The woman at the bar said, "Come on in. We've got rooms available-- oh, it's you. Planning on actually sleeping in your room instead of getting arrested tonight?" 

"I haven't broken any laws today," Keolah said. "That I know of, at any rate." She pulled out her coin pouch and counted out the price of the room. 

"If you say so, but I'm not giving you a refund this time. Your room's upstairs. Have a quiet night." 

* * *

The next morning, Keolah headed up the hill toward the keep. She only had to ask directions from two guards along the way to remember where the keep was. When she came into Farengar's laboratory again, he was speaking with a mysterious hooded leather-clad woman. 

"Hey," Keolah said, hauling the Dragonstone out of her pack. "I brought back your rock." She dropped it on the desk in front of him. 

"Ah, good, you're back! My associate here will be quite pleased to see your handiwork." 

"Yes, it's nice to see her destroying something she's supposed to be for a change," the woman commented. 

"Whatever I did, I'm terribly sorry about it," Keolah told her. 

"Yes, well, you seem to have talents of some sort, if you survived Bleak Falls Barrow," the woman said. "Alchemy just isn't one of them." 

Keolah stared at her. _Now_ she knew where she recognized that voice from. "Oh! You're the 'ale is going bad' woman!" 

Delphine glared at her. "You know, I'm wearing this hood for a reason. Did you expect me to put on a nametag as well?" 

"You mean you're not wearing the hood just because it's stylish?" Keolah said. 

"Hoods are very stylish," Farengar said. "You should get one yourself." 

"Farengar!" said the dark elf housecarl from the doorway. "A dragon has been sighted! Come, we must speak to the jarl at once." Irileth glanced to Keolah, and added, "You should come along, too. Would rather not have you wandering around the keep unsupervised." 

Keolah and Farengar followed after the dark elf as she led them up to the war room. 

"A dragon!" Farengar said excitedly. "Oh, I would dearly love the opportunity to study one up close." 

"No, no you don't," Keolah said. "I got close enough to see one's dental work. I think I'd prefer to keep admiring them from a distance instead." 

They came to a room where the jarl and several other Nords were standing around a table with a map. A soldier was relaying his report about seeing the dragon coming in and circling around. 

"Irileth, I want you to take a contingent of soldiers out there and meet this dragon," the jarl said. 

"At once, my jarl," Irileth said, bowing her head to him. 

"Keolah!" Jarl Balgruuf in a commanding voice. "I want you to go with them. You have more experience with fighting dragons than anyone here." 

"Experience?" Keolah said incredulously. "Are you insane? I didn't fight that dragon at Helgen! I ran around screaming in a panic!" 

"That's still more than anyone else here," Jarl Balgruuf said, generously ignoring her questioning his sanity. 

Keolah sighed. "Why does everyone always want me to do the dangerous things? You'd think people just want me to get myself killed or something." She ignored the look everyone in the room was giving her. 

"I envy you this opportunity," Farengar said. "I wish I could see this dragon up close." 

"Then why don't _you_ go along instead?" Keolah said. 

"I can't risk both of you," Jarl Balgruuf said. 

"Oh," Keolah said, smiling. "Well, in that case, I appreciate that you value me so highly!" 

"I meant Irileth," Balgruuf said with a smirk. 

Keolah's face fell. "Oh, fine then." 

"And Irileth, do try not to get yourself killed," Jarl Balgruuf said. "The glory of killing a dragon isn't worth it when I need information most of all." 

"I will be cautious, my jarl," Irileth said. "I can't guarantee the same for all of those with me, however." She glanced sidelong at Keolah. 

" _I'm_ going to hide behind _her_ ," Keolah said, pointing at Irileth. 

"So you're going, then?" Balgruuf said. 

"Yeah, yeah, I'll go, I'll go," Keolah said with a sigh, turning to Irileth. "I'm right behind you. Lead the way." 

She followed Irileth out of the keep. Along the way through the city, the guards wished them luck. They met up with a group of guards near the Whiterun gates. Irileth approached them to brief them on the situation. 

"A dragon?" one of them said. 

"We're doomed," said another guard. 

"What are we supposed to do against a dragon?" said a third. 

"I know none of us has actually faced a dragon before, except for this high elf here," Irileth said, gesturing to Keolah. 

"And my advice is, stay away from the mouth," Keolah said. "It'll bite you or breathe fire on you. And stay away from the claws. They'll rip you to shreds. Oh, and stay away from the tail, too, for that matter." 

The guards looked at her dubiously. 

"Keolah will be accompanying us," Irileth said. "Hopefully her spells will do more damage to the dragon than to us." 

Keolah snorted softly. "Come on, my aim is not _that_ bad. Besides, a dragon is a bigger target than a human." 

"We are _so_ doomed," a guard muttered. 

Irileth stared at Keolah for a moment and then turned back to the guards. "Never mind that. Anyway, this dragon is threatening your homes and families! Are you Nords, or what?" 

"I don't know that elves can really give pep talks on how to be good Nords," Keolah said. "And look at them! None of them even have beards! Well, the guy with the all-concealing full helmet might. And two of them have mustaches. But no beards! What kind of a Nord doesn't have a beard?" 

"Oh, forget it, let's just go," Irileth said, turning on her heel and heading for the gates. 

Keolah tried to keep pace with them as they marched down the road. They weren't inclined to slow down for her to pick flowers. Oh, fine, she could pick them on the way back. Provided any of them survived this encounter, at any rate. Why had she agreed to this again? 

The tower looked surprisingly intact when they arrived, if still on fire. There was no sign of a dragon anywhere nearby. 

Keolah let out a sigh of relief. "Maybe it's already come and gone." 

"Let's see if there's any survivors," Irileth said. "Spread out and cover the area." 

"Let me know if you find anyone that needs healing," Keolah said, wandering off to pick flowers. 

After a few minutes, one of the guards cried, "Kynareth save us, here he comes again!" 

"Huh?" Keolah said, peering about and not seeing anything. She headed over closer to the tower. 

"Make your arrows count!" Irileth ordered. 

"I don't see anything," Keolah said. 

A terrible roar split the air, and a scaly green, winged figure flew silhouetted against the cloudy sky. 

"Okay, _now_ I see something," Keolah said, eyes widening. "Talos help me!" 

She took a deep breath and started throwing lightning bolts at it. The dragon landed nearby, roaring at the guards who came up to attack it and striking one of them down in an instant. Keolah didn't let up her assault, landing several bolts whenever she could get a clear shot. 

The dragon took to the air again and circled around, and then landed further away. A couple more lightning bolts didn't land. Too far away. She had to close the distance. Keolah scrambled forward, hurling lightning until she was entirely drained of energy, catching a face full of burning breath in the process. 

She didn't have enough magicka to get off a single spell, and the dragon was directly in front of her. 

"Dovahkiin?" the dragon said. "No!" It proceeded to drop dead. 

"Thank Talos," Keolah murmured, panting and trying to catch her breath. She waited and started healing her burns as her energy regenerated. As she was doing so, there was a deep rumbling sound, and the dragon's corpse suddenly burst into flames. Keolah cried out in surprise as _something_ rushed into her, and it felt like her blood was on fire. In moments, nothing was left of the dragon but a pile of bones and a few scales. 

Suddenly, that word she'd seen in the tomb _made sense_ in her mind. 

The Whiterun soldiers ran up, gathering around the dragon's body. "I don't believe it," said one of them. "You're Dragonborn!" 

"Huh?" Keolah said. 

"Just like in the old legends! The Dragonborn is said to be able to kill dragons and steal their powers! That's what happened, wasn't it? You absorbed its soul?" 

"I don't know about _souls_ ," Keolah said. "It just kind of burned up in front of me, and... something happened." 

"Well, there's one way to find out for sure," the guard said. "Try to Shout!" 

"Uh? Well, okay," Keolah said, then yelled at the top of her lungs, "Hey, everyone! I killed a dragon!" 

The guards looked at her strangely. "No, no, not like that. Like... Words of Power!" 

"Oh," Keolah said. "You mean like... _FUS!_ " 

A wave of energy slammed into the guard, and he staggered. "Yes! Like that!" he said, catching himself before he fell down. "It's true! You _are_ Dragonborn!" 

"Huh, that's kind of neat, actually," Keolah said thoughtfully. " _FUS!_ " she shouted at Irileth. 

"I don't know about this Dragonborn business," Irileth said, nimbly avoiding falling over and glaring at her a bit. "I'm just as happy with someone who is capable of killing a dragon." 

" _FUS!_ " Keolah shouted as they started to walk off. "Hey, wait!" 

Irileth turned to look back at her. 

"You're just going to leave that here?" Keolah gestured at the dragon corpse. 

"What are we supposed to do with it?" Irileth wondered. 

"It's a whole dragon worth of bones!" Keolah said. 

"We can have someone collect it later," Irileth said. 

"I suppose," Keolah said. "So what's my share of the loot?" 

Irileth stared at her. "Why are you asking me? You're the one who killed it. Take whatever you can carry." 

"Okay," Keolah said, going over to the dragon and quickly loading up on bones and scales. She didn't stay long, not wanting to be left behind, and was careful not to grab so much that she couldn't keep up with them on the way back. "Ugh, this stuff is _heavy_." 

"Head back to Whiterun and let Jarl Balgruuf know what happened here," Irileth said. "I'll be taking command here for the moment." 

"What, by myself?" Keolah said. "I might get lost!" 

Irileth rolled her eyes and gestured to one of the guards. "You, escort her back to town and make sure she doesn't get lost." 

"Yay, thanks!" Keolah said, then turned to the guard. "Hey, can I convince you to help me carry some of these bones?" 

"I don't know..." the guard said dubiously. 

"I'm the Dragonborn!" Keolah insisted. "Also, I'll pay you." 

"Very well," the guard said with a sigh, collecting some of the bones to carry back to town. 

About halfway back to the stables, the ground suddenly shook and a crack like thunder split the air. " _DOVAHKIIN!_ " the air seemed to call. 

"The Greybeards are calling you, Dragonborn!" the guard said. 

"That was an earthquake," Keolah said firmly. "Or maybe a thunderstorm." She peered up at the partly cloudy sky. 

"Earthquakes don't utter words!" the guard said. "You must travel to the Throat of the World, the highest mountain in Skyrim, to learn about the power of the Voice from the Greybeards!" 

"That's silly," Keolah muttered. "I'm not going to go climb a mountain to yell at some old men." 

"They can teach you more Shouts," the guard said. 

"Hmm," Keolah said thoughtfully. "Eh, maybe I'll go there sometime. I've got other things to do right now." 

Once they got back to Whiterun and up to the keep, the guard shoved the dragon bones he was carrying at her. She made a soft 'oof' sound as they dragged her arm to the ground, unable to lift them all. Keolah could hardly drag them all forward to meet up with the jarl and make her report. 

"So, you're back," Jarl Balgruuf said. "What happened at the tower?" 

"We killed the dragon," Keolah said, holding aloft a dragon bone as proof. 

"So I see," the jarl said. "There must be more to it than that, though. I heard the Greybeards calling for a Dragonborn. Incredible. There hasn't been a Dragonborn in centuries. So, who was it? Irileth? Or one of the soldiers who came with you?" 

" _She's_ the Dragonborn, my jarl," the guard said. 

Jarl Balgruuf's face fell as Keolah beamed, nodding in agreement. "Oh. Well. I'm grateful for your assistance... Dragonborn. You should head up to the Throat of the World to train your powers far, far away from my city." 

"I'll get around to it," Keolah said, waving her hand dismissively. 

"It is a great honor to have the opportunity to train with the Greybeards," Balgruuf said. 

"Well... I'm busy!" Keolah said. "I have so many things to do, I've already forgotten half of them!" 

"There's no refusing the summons of the Greybeards. I have to admit, I envy you a bit for it. I made a pilgrimage up the Seven Thousand Steps once myself..." 

"Seven _Thousand_ Steps?" Keolah repeated. "Ugh, there's too many mountains in Skyrim." 

"Regardless, you _did_ kill a dragon. In honor of your service to the city, I name you Thane of Whiterun," Jarl Balgruuf said. "Now, please try not to burn down my city." 

"Oh!" Keolah said. "Thank you! I don't know what a thane is or does, but I'll be very careful! I promise!" 

"I assign you Lydia as your personal housecarl," Balgruuf said, gesturing toward a young Nord woman standing near the wall. "She can see to your needs. Also, speak to my steward if you wish to purchase property within the city. Now, I must get back to work." 

Keolah bowed respectfully toward him, and went over to Lydia, dragging her bag of bones across the room. "Lydia, is it? I'm not quite sure what a housecarl does, either, but could you help me carry this? It's awfully heavy." 

"I am sworn to carry your burdens," Lydia said dryly as she shouldered the bag. 


	7. Home Sweet Home

Keolah found Ralof sitting in the Bannered Mare inn, drinking next to the hearth in the center of the room. She beamed and skipped over toward him. 

"Ralof! Glad you could make it. Oh, by the way, meet Lydia. She's my housecarl now, apparently." 

"You have a housecarl?" Ralof asked, raising an eyebrow. 

"I'm Thane of Whiterun! Would you imagine that?" Keolah said. 

Ralof stared at her for a long moment. "Was the jarl drunk?" 

"I don't _think_ he was, but you never know with Nords, I suppose." 

"I've got the money from selling the loot from the barrow," Ralof said. "Although I'm tempted to keep half of it for myself, considering all the trouble you put me through." He smirked. 

"Oh, let's see," Keolah said. "How much do you have here..." She brightened immediately. "Wow! That's just enough to buy a house in Whiterun!" 

"Why do you want to buy a house in Whiterun?" Ralof wondered. 

"So poor Lydia doesn't have to carry around dragon bones everywhere," Keolah said, to which Lydia looked immensely grateful. 

"Wait, what?" Ralof said, eyes widening. "Where did you get dragon bones? Did you find one someone had killed or something?" 

"I killed one!" Keolah said, beaming in pride. 

" _You?_ " Ralof snorted softly. "Nonsense. I'm sure it was the rumored Dragonborn who I've heard that the Greybeards were calling earlier." 

"I'm the Dragonborn!" Keolah insisted. 

Ralof stared at her incredulously. " _You're_ the Dragonborn? Seriously?" 

"She's the Dragonborn," Lydia confirmed. 

"Talos help us all," Ralof muttered with a sigh. "I need more mead." 

Keolah tugged at his arm. "Come on. Let's get up to the keep and give that money to the steward so I can buy a house!" 

Ralof reluctantly allowed himself to be dragged out of the inn. "Why are you so eager to own a house, anyway? Besides for storage, that is." 

"I've always wanted to try my hand at interior decorating," Keolah said. 

"Scorch marks aren't really all that stylish," Ralof commented. 

Keolah headed back over toward the keep, although she nearly wound up taking a wrong turn or two along the way. She was grateful to have people along who were less likely to get lost than she was. 

"Ah, steward, steward, where's the steward," Keolah wondered as she strolled through the keep. 

"There he is, my thane," Lydia helpfully pointed him out. 

"Steward!" Keolah said, excitedly running up with her bag of coins. "I'd like to buy that house that was mentioned! I've got five thousand septims for it, right here!" She turned to Ralof and said, "See, I told you that stuff was valuable." 

"You're not the one who had to carry it," Ralof muttered. 

The steward gave Ralof an odd look. "You look like a Stormcloak, dressed up like that." 

"That's because I _am_ a Stormcloak," Ralof replied. 

"Very subtle," Keolah said, nodding. "Anyway. Yes, I support Ulfric, and have not made any secret of that fact. Is that going to be problematic?" 

"If by 'problematic' you mean that you're going to burn down the keep if I say otherwise, then no," the steward said. "But I would appreciate if you would refrain from causing any trouble and keep from starting any further fights with the Battle-Borns and other Imperial supporters." 

"I totally didn't mean to burn down House Battle-Born," Keolah said. 

"Of course you didn't," the steward said with a sigh, and handed her a key. "Here's the key to Breezehome. For additional fees, there are several upgrades that can be made to your new home." 

"You're just trying to get more money out of me," Keolah said. "I just gave you five thousand septims. Isn't that enough for you?" She grumbled. "Not like I have much more than pocket change after that anyway." 

"Come and speak with me again if you change your mind," the steward said. "The upgrades will still be available at a later time." 

"Whatever," Keolah said, turning to Lydia and Ralof. "Come on! Let's go check out our new house!" 

" _Your_ new house," Ralof said, following after her as she skipped out of the keep again. 

As Keolah headed down the steps away from the keep, she abruptly realized something. "Oh. He didn't tell us where this house is at." 

"You'd probably still get lost trying to find it anyway, even if he had," Ralof pointed out. 

"Oh well, we'll just have to go find it, then!" Keolah said, running off into the residential district. "Maybe it's here!" 

She opened a door and charged into a random building. There were wounded soldiers laying about as a robed woman tended to them. 

Ralof stepped in behind her with a sigh. "This isn't a house. It's the Temple of Kynareth. Which is probably just as well, seeing how you just barged in like that." 

"Oh, I'm sure nobody would mind," Keolah said. "Unless I set their house on fire. And I totally promised the jarl I wouldn't do that again." 

"Can I help you?" asked the priestess, approaching them. "Do any of you require healing?" 

"No, that's quite alright," Keolah said. "I'm a pretty decent healer, myself. See?" She raised her hands and channeled healing magic into one of the soldiers. The man groaned, but otherwise the spell didn't seem to be effective. "Huh, normally that works." 

"Your eagerness to help is appreciated," the priestess said. "But at the moment, what they need most is rest." 

"I can't say I'm really impressed by this temple, all in all," Keolah said. "I mean, you've got this big dead tree sitting right outside! What an eyesore!" 

The priestess sighed, and then proceeded to ramble off onto a long-winded story about how special this particular tree was, but Keolah wasn't paying much attention, having gotten distracted by some purple flowers growing in long planters along the walls. 

"Lavender!" Keolah said, picking some. This could be very useful in alchemy, for... something or other. She wasn't sure. But it was probably useful. 

"Thief!" the priestess shrieked. 

"Oops," Keolah said. "Was this yours? Here, I'll give it back, sorry." Keolah tried to hand the plucked stems to her. 

"You've already picked it," the priestess pointed out. "You can't just put it back." 

A guard burst into the temple and said, "Halt! You have committed crimes against--" 

"I know, I know!" Keolah said with a sigh. "I'm not going to jail over some flowers. Here, hold this." She shoved the lavender at Lydia, who was doing her best to not look too much like an accomplice, and failing at it. 

The guard took some septims as Keolah tossed them over. "Smart woman. I'll just take any stolen goods and you're free to go." He then walked out of the temple again without taking anything. 

Ralof peered at Lydia, who was still holding onto the plucked lavender. "I guess he didn't want to retrieve those stolen flowers too badly?" He snorted softly. "How do you even get yourself into these situations, Keolah?" 

"Sorry about that," Keolah said, turning around to face the priestess again. "What were you saying?" 

"To revive the tree outside, you need some sap from its parent tree," the priestess said. "But in order to tap it, you need to retrieve a special weapon from the Hagravens at Orphan Rock, called Nettlebane." 

"Oh! And that'll make the tree all pretty again? Okay, I'll do it," Keolah said. "Uh, where's Orphan Rock?" 

"That's very generous of you to offer. I'll mark it on your map." 

"Right then," Keolah said. "I'll get to that eventually." 

The priestess sighed. "It does seem like a less than urgent task, what with the war going on and all, doesn't it?" 

"I'll totally get around to doing it sometime, though," Keolah said. "Promise!" 

The three of them headed out of the temple and resumed searching for Breezehome. Ralof decided to head her off and just ask a guard for directions rather than having to apologize at everyone's house that they might barge into. 

Keolah strode proudly into her new home, and then promptly sneezed. "By all the gods, look at this place!" 

Breezehome looked as though it hadn't been occupied in years. Cobwebs were strung up in every corner, and dust covered every surface. There wasn't even much to speak of in the way of furnishings -- some old boxes, a couple of chairs sitting upside-down on them, a table shoved into the far corner of the room. The firepit in the center of the floor didn't even have so much as a speck of ashes within it, much to her disappointment as she'd been hoping to get warm next to a crackling fire. 

"I can _squat_ in places better than this!" Keolah said. "Bandits live in places better than this! I could just kill them and take over _their_ hideouts!" 

"Well, you can still use it to store things," Ralof pointed out. 

"Oh yeah," Keolah said. "And I've got the key to the place, so it's a lot less likely that someone will wander off with my stuff. Lydia, find a place to dump those dragon bones, would you? And, say, does being a housecarl include housekeeping?" 

Lydia sat down the bag in the corner and said, "I can guard the place against intruders and clean it up a bit for you, my thane." 

"Great!" Keolah said, and sneezed again. "I'm-- I'm going back outside now." She hurriedly stepped out of the house and took a breath of fresh air. "It's nice to have minions. I _really_ didn't want to have to dust that place myself." 

"You know, I would feel more sorry for Lydia, but at least cleaning is safe. Following you around tends to lead into dangerous situations," Ralof said. 

"Hey, let's go find a dangerous situation to get into!" Keolah said brightly. 

Ralof looked at her strangely. "Are you joking, or just suicidal?" 

"Neither," Keolah said. "Dangerous situations tend to pay well, and I need more money to throw at that steward to make my house suck less. Also, I'm the Dragonborn! I'm awesome! I can yell to push things around!" 

"Somehow, I find that less impressive than the fact that you can throw fire and lightning from your fingertips," Ralof said dryly. 

"Now, I've got a number of jobs people wanted me to do, but I'm afraid I've forgotten most of them," Keolah said. "So let's go talk to everyone." 

Ralof reluctantly followed after Keolah as she wandered around town, and wound up in the Hall of the Dead. 

"Huh, I totally didn't notice this was even here the first five times we passed it," Keolah said. 

"Welcome, traveler," said a robed priest. "Tell me, are you familiar with Arkay, the God of Death?" 

"Oh, yeah, I kill lots of stuff," Keolah said. "Although a lot of it is already dead to start with." 

"Perhaps you can help me out with a small problem I have, then," the priest said. 

"Certainly! This is going to involve incinerating undead, isn't it? I mean, this is a catacomb, right? Catacombs always have undead in them, don't they?" 

"We generally prefer they didn't, but that seems to happen with distressing frequency," the priest said. "There have, indeed, been disturbing noises from within the catacombs. I fear the dead have become restless. What's worse, I lost my Amulet of Arkay somewhere within, and without it I cannot access my divine powers to deal with them." 

"How did you manage that?" Keolah wondered. "Did you just set it down somewhere and forget about it? Actually, I could totally see that, I'd probably do that myself." 

"We'll see about finding your amulet and cleansing this infestation," Ralof said with a sigh. "Wouldn't want the undead to wander out _into the middle of the city_ or anything, after all." 

The two of them headed down into the catacombs. The place was full of skeletons, but they were very weak compared to the Draugr that they'd encountered in Bleak Falls Barrow, and went down easily. Keolah proceeded to thoroughly search the place, scooping up weapons, coins, and tableware and handing them to Ralof to carry. 

"We're supposed to be destroying undead and looking for the old man's amulet, not looting the place for everything that might sell for a few septims," Ralof protested. 

"I'm not finding any amulet here, anyway," Keolah said. They headed back to the Hall of the Dead, and she told the priest, "Hey, I think we killed all the skeletons, but we couldn't find your amulet." 

"Well, I'm sure it's down there somewhere," the priest said. "Go back and look for it some more!" 

"Why don't you look yourself?" Ralof said. "The skeletons are all dead. Re-dead. Deader." 

"Oh, no, I couldn't do that. I'm just a frail old man without my divine powers. The undead might get up again without warning, and what would I do then?" 

Ralof sighed. "Fine, we'll go take another look around and see if we can find it." 

They returned to the catacombs to scour the place a second time. Keolah spotted an unusual gem sitting in the corner of one of the alcoves that she hadn't noticed before and snatched it up. "Shiny!" She quickly pocketed it. 

"I have no idea how you missed that the first time," Ralof said. "Or, for that matter, how we haven't found that amulet. We've grabbed practically everything else that wasn't nailed down." 

Finally, in the deepest room of the catacombs, they spotted the amulet just sitting on a table next to a wreath and a candle. 

"How did you not notice that there?" Ralof wondered. 

"Hey, you can't talk," Keolah said. "You didn't see it either." 

"I was busy watching your back to make sure skeletons didn't approach from behind," Ralof said. 

"Uh-huh. Let's go." 

Amulet in hand, they returned to the priest a second time. The old man was ecstatic when he laid eyes on it. 

"Thank Arkay! Take this gold for your troubles." He took the amulet and handed a small pouch to Keolah. 

She looked inside and counted out the coins. "Fifteen septims? That's _all_? Seriously? Oh, come on, I could _sell_ that amulet for more than that!" 

"Keolah!" Ralof scolded. 

Keolah grumbled. "Fine, fine. Come on. Let's go hit the marketplace." 

"Before he notices that there's so much stuff missing," Ralof muttered under his breath once they were safely outside. 

It was late once they'd discreetly sold off the loot from the catacombs, so they headed back to Breezehome to check on Lydia's progress. Thankfully, this time Keolah did not immediately sneeze upon stepping into the house. The housecarl had even gotten a fire going in the firepit. 

"Good work, Lydia," Keolah said, smiling. "That's so much better. Still crap, but there's not much you can do about that, I suppose. Well, not unless you were planning on sneaking into the neighbors' houses and stealing their furniture." 

"I am not going to steal furniture, my thane," Lydia said flatly. 

"Of course not," Keolah said. "That was a joke. After all, it's heavy and hard to move." 

"Right, how about we just scrounge up some dinner and be glad we have a fire and a roof over our heads?" Ralof suggested. "And we can make plans for tomorrow." 

"Plans?" Keolah said, looking at him in confusion as Lydia started some food cooking. 

"You know. Deciding on what to do?" 

"Oh, I don't tend to do that," Keolah said. "I always wind up forgetting what I meant to do anyway." 

Ralof put his face in the palm of his hand. "Of course you do. Why am I not surprised? Alright, then, how about a suggestion? We should probably head to Windhelm and see Jarl Ulfric. He'll certainly want to know about the -- uh -- Dragonborn thing. And he'll probably have a good idea on what should be done about the dragons." 

"Well, kill them, of course," Keolah said. 

"I did mean more specifically than that," Ralof said. 

"Oh, well, I suppose," Keolah said, then brightened. "It'll be good to have you along, though. I meant to go to Windhelm and join the Stormcloaks officially and all, but I was kind of afraid that I'd get horribly lost along the way. You can show me how to get there!" 

"Will I be accompanying you, my thane?" Lydia asked. "Or do you wish me to remain here and guard your home?" 

"Do you think anyone might try to steal my stuff?" Keolah wondered. 

"I have put the dragon bones upstairs, my thane," Lydia said. "Given the state of the house, I doubt that any potential thieves would believe there to be anything of value here, regardless. But there is always a risk, I suppose. If you wish me to remain here to guard the place, I will protect your possessions with my life." 

"Hmm," Keolah said, looking between Lydia and Ralof thoughtfully. "You know, you're both big, strong Nords." 

"I would be glad to defend you in battle as well, my thane," Lydia said. 

"You can help carry loot!" Keolah said. "With two big, strong Nords, we could haul twice as much loot out of a place than with just one!" 

Lydia's face fell, and Ralof gave her a sympathetic look. "As you wish, my thane." 

"You get used to it," Ralof said. "Are you good with a bow, by chance? It's far preferable to be _behind_ her in battle, honestly." 


	8. The Road to Windhelm

Come morning, after a quick breakfast, Keolah headed out onto the streets of Whiterun, and turned to head with purpose further into the city. Lydia trailed behind her silently. Ralof, however, was less than silent. 

"Keolah?" Ralof put in. "I know you're not good with directions and all, but the city gate is _that_ way." 

"Oh, I know," Keolah replied. "I'm just looking to see if anyone might conveniently want us to kill any bandits on the way, for pay." 

"That's more sensible than I've come to expect from you," Ralof said. 

"Now, where was that mead-hall..." Keolah said. "Those Companions were amusing." 

"This way, my thane," Lydia offered helpfully. 

Lydia showed them the way, and once inside, Keolah approached a rough-looking Nord woman sitting at the long table eating. 

"Excuse me," Keolah said hesitantly. 

"Oh, it's the funny Elf," the woman said. "Don't tell me you want to join the Companions now." She chuckled. 

"Maybe I could kill some bandits?" Keolah suggested. 

"It's not up to me if you've got what it takes to be a Companion. You'll need to talk to Kodlak for that." 

"But I..." Keolah began, then shook her head. "Oh, never mind, alright." She approached the only other person sitting at the table at the moment, a Nord man. "Are you Kodlak?" 

"No, I'm Skjor." 

Keolah headed outside to the back patio behind the mead-hall. "Are you Kodlak?" she asked an old man. 

"I'm Vignar Gray-Mane." 

"Oh, sorry," Keolah said, then approached the next figure. "Are you Kodlak?" The humanoid shape didn't respond. 

"My thane, that is a practice dummy," Lydia said quietly. 

"Oops," Keolah said sheepishly, and went back inside. To one side of the mead-hall, there was a staircase leading down. Perhaps Kodlak was in the basement. She headed downstairs. 

At the end of the hall on the lower level, there was a chamber in which two men were talking about something or other involving blood. Keolah came inside and politely waited until they stopped talking, not wanting to interrupt their conversation. It wasn't really eavesdropping if she wouldn't remember what they said five minutes later, after all. 

"Pardon me," Keolah said. "I didn't want to interrupt, but is one of you Kodlak?" 

"That would be me," said the older man. "So, you want to become a Companion, do you?" 

"I don't really--" Keolah began. 

"You aren't seriously considering accepting _her_ , are you?" the younger man said dubiously. 

"Hey now!" Keolah said. "I could be just as good a Companion as you!" She'd just been looking for work, not to actually join them or anything, but if they were going to doubt her like this, she'd just have to prove them wrong. 

"She's got a fire in her," Kodlak said. "A certain strength of spirit. Why don't you take her out back and see what she can do, Vilkas?" 

"Very well," said the other man, Vilkas apparently. 

As they headed back up top, Ralof murmured behind her, "Weren't we just going to look for work and then set out for Windhelm?" 

"I'm going to prove them wrong!" Keolah insisted. 

"Alright, alright," Ralof said with a smirk. "This ought to be good." 

Outside, Vilkas drew a sword and said, "Alright, the old man wants me to see what you're made of, so let's do this. Come at me." 

"Okay," Keolah said. She raised her hands and let forth a gout of flame toward him. 

Vilkas, however, was unimpressed. "What's this? We don't do battle with magic around here, Elf." 

"What, you want me to attack you with a _sword_?" Keolah said. "But I'm a mage!" 

"I will assist you, my thane!" Lydia said, her blade impacting upon Vilkas' shield. 

"Come on now, fight your own battles," Vilkas said to Keolah. 

"As her housecarl, it is my duty to fight for her!" Lydia insisted. 

Ralof snickered and offered Keolah his sword. "Here, you can use mine. Just try not to cut off your own foot with it." 

Keolah took the sword in both hands and swung it awkwardly, making a sweeping vertical arc through the air and striking the dirt. Lydia continued to hammer against his shield. 

"Come on, hit me!" Vilkas said. 

"Rahh!" Keolah cried, swinging the sword around wildly a few more times even as Lydia continued to try to help. She wasn't even sure if she actually hit him or not, but eventually Vilkas laughed and raised a hand, and stopped fighting. 

"Not bad, for a mage. You've got spirit, like Kodlak said, I'll give you that." 

Lydia, however, hadn't gotten the clue that the fight was over, and continued to flail at him. Vilkas casually help up his shield and blocked her attacks even while talking. 

"But you're still new here, so you've got to do what we tell you," Vilkas went on. "Take my sword up to the Skyforge and have Eorlund Gray-Mane sharpen it up, why don't you?" 

"Okay," Keolah said, taking the sword and passing Ralof's back to him. 

"And do tell your overenthusiastic housecarl to calm down," Vilkas said, glancing aside at Lydia, who was still hitting his shield. 

"Lydia," Keolah said. "Lydia, you can stop attacking him now." 

Lydia didn't seem to hear her. Vilkas continued to block her attacks as he turned and headed back into the mead-hall. Keolah scratched her head, shrugged, and headed up toward the nearby forge. At least, she figured, she couldn't get lost going to someplace within sight. The Skyforge was located on a ledge situated above the mead-hall's back patio, and a path wound around up to it. 

There was an old Nord man working the forge, and Keolah approached him and said, "I take it you're Eorlund Gray-Mane? Vilkas sent me with his sword." 

"That would be me," Eorlund said, taking the blade. "You must be a newcomer here? They like to forget that they were all whelps, once. You shouldn't always just do what you're told." 

"Why would I always do what I'm told?" Keolah said in puzzlement. "If I'm doing what somebody asked me to, it's because I'm hoping for something in return, or maybe because I was just feeling nice. The only one that's allowed to order _me_ around is Ulfric Stormcloak." 

"Might not want to say that too loudly around here," Eorlund replied. 

"Why not?" Keolah said. "They all know it, and I've made no secret of it." 

"It might earn you a knife in the back or an axe to the face, though," Eorlund said. "The Companions don't take sides, but there's a lot of Imperial supporters in this city still." 

"I will watch your back, my thane," Lydia assured her. 

"Yes, I'm sure you will," Keolah said. 

"Could you do me a favor?" Eorlund said. "Would you deliver this new shield to Aela the Huntress?" 

"Oh, sure," Keolah said. "I'm going back in there anyway." She turned and jumped off the ledge down to the patio. 

"Gah!" Ralof said, running to catch up to her. "What did you do that for?" 

"What?" Keolah wondered innocently as she headed toward the back doors. 

"Jumping off the ledge like that." 

"It was shorter than walking all the way around again," Keolah said with a shrug. Inside, she walked up to an old woman who was sitting at the table. "Excuse me. Are you Aela the Huntress?" 

"Oh, I'm just a servant," the old woman said with a touch of amusement. 

Keolah proceeded to wander around the entire hall asking every female (and one male Dunmer) if they were Aela the Huntress, before finally finding her. 

"Ah, you must be the new blood Vilkas mentioned," Aela said, taking her shield gratefully. "Tell me, do you think you could best Vilkas in a real fight?" 

"Are you crazy?" Keolah said. "In a real fight, I'd incinerate him with magic, but without magic, I'm utterly useless. I'm not sure that I even managed to hit him at all. I think he just felt sorry for me or something. Or just wanted Lydia to quit hitting on him." 

"Hitting him," Ralof said quietly. "Hitting on means something different." 

Keolah looked at him in puzzlement. 

Aela smirked in amusement. "Farkas! Why don't you show the newcomer where the whelps sleep?" 

"That's not necessary," Keolah said. "I have my own house." 

Farkas said, "Still, you're welcome to sleep here if you ever want to. And if you're looking for something to do, there's a bit of trouble with some bandits you could take care of. Nothing we can't handle. Cowards. Should be easy." 

"Ah, bandits!" Keolah said. "Excellent! Just point me to them." 

Farkas pointed out a location on her map. "Valtheim Keep." 

Ralof peered over at it. "Ah, that's right on the way to Windhelm. Convenient. Wait, Keolah, if you have this map, why do you get lost all the time?" 

"It doesn't exactly have a 'you are here' marker..." Keolah said. 

"But..." Ralof said, then shook his head. "Oh, never mind. Let's go. There's bandits that need to be killed." 

With that, the three of them headed out the gates of Whiterun. 

"We might even get something done if we don't spend the remainder of the day picking flowers and catching butterflies," Ralof commented, watching Keolah snap up another blue butterfly. 

When they came to the crossroads with the two bridges, Keolah peered at the sign and said, "Okay, so which way do we go from here?" 

Ralof smirked and pointed at the sign. "Windhelm. That way." 

"I can't even make out the writing on this sign!" Keolah complained. "I'll take your word on it, though." 

As they crossed the bridge, Ralof took her map and peered at it. "Why do you have White River Watch marked on your map?" 

"I'm not sure," Keolah said. "Maybe somebody wanted me to do something here? I don't remember." 

"You're useless," Ralof said with a chuckle, shoving the map back at her. "But I suppose it couldn't hurt to check it out so long as we're here. Well, couldn't hurt provided you don't set me on fire again, anyway." 

White River Watch turned out to be full of bandits. Ralof and Lydia had equipped themselves with both bows and swords, and for the most part stayed back and shot arrows at the bandits while Keolah used fire and lightning. 

Inside the cave, a Nord man was standing guard. He asked, "Rodulf? Is that you?" 

Keolah cocked her head at him and said, "What, can't you see me?" 

"You're just making fun of old Ulfr the Blind again, aren't you," the man said indignantly. 

"If you think that I _sound_ like a Rodulf, then you're deaf as well as blind," Keolah commented. 

"Yeah, I'm Rodulf," Ralof said with a chuckle. 

"I thought you were Ralof?" Keolah said. "I can't keep these Nord names straight." 

"Oh, never mind," Ralof said, pulling out his sword and skewering Ulfr the Blind. "Now, we've killed the poor blind man. Happy now?" 

"Well, if he didn't want to die, he shouldn't have been hanging out with bandits, Rodulf," Keolah said, moving on. 

"I'm Ralof!" 

"Stop confusing me!" 

Ralof put his face in his palm and muttered to himself, "I've just got to get her to Windhelm. Ulfric will appreciate having the Dragonborn on his side. And killing bandits is helping Skyrim." He paused to watch her harvest a cluster of reddish mushrooms. "And if she wants to pick every mushroom along the way, fine, at least they're good for alchemical ingredients, I suppose..." 

They fought their way through the bandit-infested caves and came out at the summit. The apparent leader of these bandits was a Nord with a horned helmet wielding an overly large weapon that he didn't even get a chance to use, what with being shot by several arrows and electrocuted. Among the loot was an old sword with what looked to be a family crest. 

"A family heirloom?" Ralof said. "Looks like it belongs to somebody, at any rate, and not these bandits. They might be interested in getting it back." 

"Probably," Keolah said. "Come to think, I seem to recall somebody wanted me to find his sword... I don't remember who it was, though." 

Regardless, it was Ralof and Lydia who wound up having to carry everything. "Nice view of the city from up here, though," Ralof commented, as Keolah approached the edge of the cliff. "Wait, what are you doing?" he asked in alarm. 

"Taking a shortcut down," Keolah said. 

Before Ralof could stop her, she started jumping and scrambling down the edge of the cliff. Thankfully, it wasn't as steep as it could be, and for the most part she got down without any trouble, although one jump near the end hurt badly enough that she broke out the healing magic to ease the pain from the fall. 

"You're insane," Ralof commented, scrambling down after her, although a bit more carefully. 

They returned to the road and continued on the way toward Windhelm. Some ways further on, a firebolt soared through the air over Keolah's shoulder. 

"What in Oblivion was that?" Keolah said. "I'm the only one allowed to throw firebolts around here!" 

She shot off several lightning bolts in the direction it came from, which turned out to be a vaguely humanoid being made entirely of flame. For all that, however, it wasn't immune to lightning or getting shot up. 

"A flame atronach," Ralof said. "I'm just glad you don't go around summoning those like some mages I've seen." 

"You can _summon_ those?" Keolah said thoughtfully. 

"Talos help us, I haven't given you ideas, have I?" Ralof said in horror. "Please forget about it. Forget I said anything." 

There was the corpse of a Nord man nearby who looked like he'd been killed by the atronach. Keolah quickly made sure that he was stripped of his valuables before they moved on. 

"You know," Ralof said. "It's getting late and we're still within sight of Whiterun, thanks to all the delays. Why don't we head back for the night, sell the loot, and set out for Windhelm in the morning?" 

"It's not that late," Keolah said. 

"It's past dark," Ralof pointed out. 

"Oh, look!" Keolah said excitedly. "Luna moths!" She almost fell down the slope chasing after the faintly glowing bluish insects. 

"My point made, I think..." 

* * *

The next morning, when they stepped outside of Breezehome to start heading for Windhelm again, they were greeted by a crack of thunder and a downpour. 

"Ugh! And now it's raining!" Keolah said. "We should've just kept going last night. At least it was dry!" 

"At least you have a nice new robe?" Ralof said. 

One of the bandits at White River Watch had apparently been a mage, and they'd found a robe in decent condition in one of the wardrobes that for some reason furnished the bandit cave. Some of the other items they'd found had minor enchantments upon them as well, and rather than sell them, Keolah had held onto them to examine them more closely in hopes of learning about enchanting. 

So, to that end, she headed up toward the keep and strolled into Farengar's laboratories. "Could you teach me about item enchanting?" she asked him. 

"Ah, of course," Farengar said. "First, you will need to learn an enchantment. For that, you'll need an enchanted item. Just take it over to the enchanting table there and you can discern the magic that went into it. Of course, the item is destroyed in the process." 

Keolah raised an eyebrow. "So um... how did people learn about enchanting in the first place, then?" 

"That's a very fascinating subject," Farengar said. "You see, in ancient times--" 

Ralof held up a hand. "I'm sure it _is_ very fascinating. However, we did have other things we meant to do today." 

"Oh, of course," Farengar said as Keolah took one of the swords they'd found over to the enchanting table. "Once you know an enchantment, you can use a soul gem to place it on another object. Of course, you need to trap the soul of a creature in the gem to power the enchantment first. If you don't already know the spell, I can sell you a Soul Trap spellbook." 

"You're just trying to get money out of me again," Keolah said, finishing up with the sword as it dissolved into sparks, and taking a bow from Lydia to examine next. 

"I also sell soul gems, some of which already have souls in them," Farengar said. "If you don't want to go to the trouble of doing that." 

"I'm not interested!" Keolah insisted. 

"How do you expect to enchant anything without soul gems?" Farengar wondered. 

"I'll just confiscate some from bandits or something, I don't know," Keolah said. She went to disenchant the next item, and suddenly her robe dissolved around her. "Oops..." 

In her haste, Keolah had wound up accidentally disenchanting the very robe she was wearing, leaving her standing in the chilly laboratory with only her underwear on. Ralof and Farengar averted their eyes, and Lydia sighed quietly and pulled out some spare clothes from her pack. Keolah hurriedly went into a side room to get dressed again. 

When she emerged again, Farengar asked, "How did you manage to disenchant what you were wearing?" 

"It was an accident!" Keolah said, flushing in embarrassment. 

"And here I thought you were less likely to destroy unintended things by doing this," Ralof said. "Silly me. Of course you would find a way to do so." 

Keolah muttered, rather miffed about the whole affair, and stalked out of the keep. She'd rather liked that robe, too. And it was still raining outside, too. 

"Have you found my father's sword yet?" asked a Redguard man as she passed through the marketplace. 

"Oh..." Keolah said. She went over to sift through Lydia's pack. "Is this it?" she asked, pulling out the sword and showing it to him. 

"Ah! I've been searching for this for months! Did you take on all those bandits yourself?" 

"With help," Ralof put in, smirking. 

"To repay you, let me show you some of my father's sword techniques." 

Keolah looked at the Redguard man strangely. "Why don't you show _them_ the technique, and I'll just go shopping in the meantime?" She gestured to Lydia and Ralof. "I'm a mage. I'll leave the swording to the sworders." 

"Is that even a word?" Ralof wondered. 

Fortunately, it was still well before noon by the time they managed to leave Whiterun this time, and it had stopped raining by that point. They made good time on the road, and made it to Valtheim Towers without having to contend with more than some unruly wildlife along the way. Not that the fox, the three deer, or the bunny were especially unruly, but Keolah electrocuted them anyway. 

The three of them proceeded to make quick work of the bandits at the tower, at least until they came up to the bridge. It was a high, narrow stone walkway that could barely hold two people side by side, spanning over the wide river from rather high up. Keolah froze upon seeing it, staring out at the bridge and the large amount of air below it trepidatiously. 

"Is there a problem, my thane?" Lydia asked. 

"I don't wanna go out there," Keolah said, practically clinging to the tower doorway. 

Ralof stared at her incredulously. "You just jumped down a cliff yesterday, and now you don't want to cross a bridge?" 

"That was different!" Keolah insisted. 

"How?" Ralof wondered. 

"That was just little steps! It's easy to go down. But falling is bad! And falling a long way is _really_ bad!" 

Ralof opened his mouth as if to argue with her more, then just shook his head and went over to loot the corpse of the bandit that was laying halfway across the bridge. 

"Will we need to cross the river to get to Windhelm?" Keolah wondered when he returned. 

"We don't need to cross it here," Ralof said. 

"Let's just go, then," Keolah said. 

They headed back down to the road and continued on. Further on, down below a waterfall, they came to a point where the river could be easily forded, and there appeared to be a path leading up the hill on the far side. Maybe this would make for a good shortcut. Keolah headed across the ankle-deep water and strolled up the path. 

She peered out from behind a large rock. A giant with a club bigger than she was stood with his back to her further down the path. Quietly, Keolah turned around and went back across the river without looking back. 

"Let's not go that way after all," Keolah said. 

"I'm not going to argue or anything, but it seems strange that you killed a dragon, but you're scared of giants," Ralof said. 

"I was scared of the dragon, too," Keolah said. 

They returned to the road and continued on, and came to a nice, wide, low bridge over the river. A bit past it, they came to a fork in the road with a sign with arrows pointing off in different directions. Keolah stopped and peered at it, trying to make out the faded writing. 

"Windhelm is this way," Ralof said, pointing to the left. 

"Somebody really ought to repaint these signs or something," Keolah said, heading off in the direction Ralof indicated. 

Some time later, after passing another bridge or two, a mill, and nearly getting mauled by a saber cat and a crazy drunken orc, the temperature started falling sharply, and there was snow on the ground. Keolah pulled out some pelts and wrapped them tight around her. 

"The bad news is that it's really, really cold," Keolah muttered. "The good news is that there's snowberries here!" She ran over to pick some. 

It was starting to grow late by the time they approached the gates of Windhelm, and Ralof breathed a sigh of relief. Keolah, on the other hand, was _freezing_. She couldn't wait to get out of the cold and huddle up next to a warm fire. 

"Skyrim is much too cold, and gray, and brown, and icky," Keolah muttered as they headed through the gates. 

Once inside the city, Keolah sent Lydia off to the marketplace to sell their 'confiscated' goods that they'd acquired from the bandits, and made straight for the palace. Or more accurately, asked Ralof where the palace was and followed him. She still got lost in Whiterun, and she was getting used to that place by now -- she had no hope of finding her way around an unfamiliar city. 

The Palace of the Kings was colder on the inside than she would have liked, but at least it was out of the wind. These Nords probably thought it was comfortably warm. And there he was. Ulfric Stormcloak. He was speaking with one of his generals about something or other, but Keolah wasn't really paying attention. She was too busy trying to warm up a bit and staring at him in the meantime. It would be rude to interrupt, anyway. 

"You know, Keolah," Ralof said quietly after a bit. "I think he was giving that speech for your benefit." 

"Huh?" Keolah said dumbly, blinking. 

Fortunately, Ulfric didn't seem to notice that she hadn't really been listening. "To approach a jarl without summons, you must be either foolish or brave." 

"Oh, it's the former, I assure you, Jarl Ulfric," Keolah replied, bowing to him respectfully. 

Ulfric looked vaguely amused, and said, "Do I know you? You seem familiar." 

"You remember me?" Keolah said, clapping her hands together gleefully. "We were about to be executed together. And then that dragon showed up, and you untied me." 

"Ah, yes, the high elf mage in Helgen," Ulfric said, nodding. 

"I've come to join you," Keolah said. "I want to be a Stormcloak and fight against the Empire too!" 

"Is that so?" Ulfric said dubiously. 

"And I helped Ralof here to escape from Helgen and get here," Keolah said, gesturing to him. "I'm sure he'll vouch for me, too." 

"Um..." Ralof said, chewing on his lower lip. "Yes, she'll be a valuable ally. She's also the Dragonborn..." 

"Dragonborn? Truly?" Ulfric said, raising an eyebrow and looking over Keolah appraisingly. "Yet you seem doubtful, Ralof. Why is that?" 

"Well, let's just say that she's better pointed at the enemy and let loose," Ralof said dryly. 

"I'm not _that_ bad," Keolah protested, pouting a little. 

"You set me on fire," Ralof pointed out. 

"That only happened once!" 

"I see," Ulfric said, stifling laughter. "Well, speak with my general, Galmar Stone-Fist. We'll welcome anyone capable of destroying the enemy. And a Dragonborn would be a powerful symbol for people to rally behind." 

"Yes, behind her is the best place to be," Ralof said, nodding in agreement. 

Keolah went over to the general Ulfric had been speaking with when she came in. "Galmar, is it?" 

"Aye," Galmar said. "Tell me. Why's an Elf want to fight for Skyrim?" 

"Because Jarl Ulfric helped me in Helgen and I probably owe him my life," Keolah replied. 

"Hmm, a fair enough answer," Galmar said with a nod. "I need people who are willing to die for the cause." 

"Wouldn't it be more useful to have people who are willing to _kill_ for the cause?" Keolah said. "I'd think it would be better to make the other guys die for _their_ cause, instead." 

Galmar chuckled. "You make a good point. But I'd like to test your mettle and commitment, first." 

"What would you have me do?" 

"On an island to the north, there's a shrine that attracts ice wraiths," Galmar said. "I want you to go there by yourself and slay an ice wraith." 

"By myself?" Keolah said hesitantly. "I don't know if I can do that." 

"Every soldier must be able to stand on their own before they can stand with their brothers and sisters in arms." 

"I mean, I'm afraid I'd probably get lost along the way," Keolah said. 

"Well, that's your problem, then," Galmar said. "Are you refusing the test?" 

"No," Keolah said. "I'll do it." 

"Good. Return to me when the task is completed. Go now." 

Keolah turned to head out of the Palace of the Kings, somewhat dejectedly. She had a feeling that this was not going to be fun at all. 


	9. The Worst Thief in Riften

Keolah headed out of Windhelm come morning, alone. She was a little nervous about heading out on her own. Silly, really, since few people had ever wanted to hang around her for long, but she'd already grown to appreciate the presence of Ralof and Lydia. After all, they were great for carrying heavy things. Oh, and the company wasn't bad, either. 

She crossed the bridge leading away from Windhelm and glanced about the frozen landscape, pulling her furs closer around her shoulders. She had a quest to perform. Now, which way was north? She thought it was north, anyway. 

Setting off across the brown landscape, she hummed tunelessly to herself. As she traveled, she harvested every interesting alchemical ingredient she came across along the way. And very, very carefully avoided a giant and some mammoths. A horrible mental image of being knocked into the sky by a giant's club kept her from wanting to get close. 

A screech split the air, and Keolah looked to the sky in alarm. The silhouette of a dragon circled overhead. 

"Oh, Talos," Keolah muttered. 

Panicking a little, she started flicking lightning bolts into the general direction of the huge scaly winged lizard, but it was too far away to hit. Her heart pounded, terrified of wanting to face such a creature by herself. This was it, she thought. The legendary Dragonborn, struck down by the second dragon she encountered. The first time was obviously just a fluke. The random Nord guards must have done all the real work, and she just hadn't noticed. She obviously wasn't the hero they were looking for. 

The dragon flew on, completely failing to even notice her on the ground below, and vanished behind the trees. 

Keolah stared off at where it had gone for a long moment as she calmed herself slowly. Perhaps it was just as well. After settling her nerves and replenishing her magicka, she moved on. 

She had to imagine that, by this point, she was already hopelessly lost, and had no idea if she was even going in the right direction. There was a hot spring. Which one was it on her map? She had no idea. She could hardly make sense of this thing on the best of days. 

An Imperial patrol passed by with a captured Stormcloak soldier. What were they doing this far into Stormcloak territory? She attempted to free the Stormcloak, killed the Imperial soldiers but didn't manage to save the soldier. "Well, that could have gone better," she muttered, then stripped their armor and sold it to a passing Khajiit caravan, who looked the other way. And then one of the Khajiit asked her to retrieve an amulet stolen by bandits. She promised she'd keep an eye out for it, even as she knew she would not only completely forget about it, but probably be unable to find this particular trade caravan again anyway. 

There were so many side paths leading off of the main road that Keolah just knew she was going to get lost, especially as she doubted the road would lead to the island she was looking for. One path marked by archways had stairs winding up to a place that looked dwarven. Having no desire to go poking around Dwemer ruins at the moment, she left it alone for now. 

A trail led up into snow-covered slopes. As she reached the top of a cliff, it occurred to her, if she were trying to reach an island in the ocean, shouldn't she be going _downhill_? Well, no matter. She'd figure out where she was eventually. 

Night was falling as she came upon a watchtower, with a crackling fire burning outside. Maybe this would be a good place to hole up for the night, especially as it was beginning to rain now. However, as Keolah approached the place to investigate, she discovered that all the guards at the tower were dead. That was never a good sign. There weren't any bandits or anything in sight, however. 

Still, it was warm and dry, and she wanted to get out of the rain. Much as she hated sleeping someplace where people had died, she didn't really have much choice. She placed a fire rune over the doorway, ate some dinner, and curled up in her furs on the lower level to rest. 

Come morning, it was still raining. Keolah grumbled at that, but at least it was light out again, and nothing had bothered her in the night. 

Further down the road, maybe a few minutes walk from the tower, she came upon a small village as the rain started to taper off finally. Keolah stared at the place in annoyance. If she'd just kept going a little bit further last night, she could have slept in an actual bed! Admittedly, they'd probably have wanted her to pay for it, too. 

Well, the coin part could be remedied. She hauled the equipment up from the guards at the tower and shoved it off on the blacksmith. "Are you aware that the people at that tower over there are dead?" 

"Bah, it would figure, on top of everything else," the smith said. "As if we haven't had enough go wrong around here as it is. I hope you haven't come here looking for work in the mine." 

Keolah stared at him oddly. "Do I look like a miner to you?" 

"Suppose not, though you never can tell," the blacksmith said. "The mine's full of spiders! I hope they don't come out and eat us!" 

"Spiders?" Keolah said. "Is that all?" 

"Well, if you think you can take care of them, feel free. I'll have something for your pockets if you can manage it. Just be careful in there." 

"Right," Keolah said, not feeling the least bit threatened by a few spiders. 

She headed off, then proceeded to spend the next hour or two wandering the nearby countryside and attempting to fine the mine in question, only to return to the village and discover that the entrance was right behind the smithy. Feeling quite silly, she headed inside. After casually incinerating every oversized creepy-crawly in the mine, Keolah returned to the blacksmith. 

"Thank the Divines, you're back!" the smith said. "I was starting to wonder if you'd been killed." 

Keolah snorted softly. "No, your mine is clear. I just got a little lost along the way." 

The blacksmith looked at her strangely. "But... the mine is right there. How could you..." 

"Don't. Ask." Keolah smirked. 

"Alright, alright. Here's fair payment for your work. Now, we can put Shor's Stone back on the map, thanks to you." 

"Speaking of maps," Keolah said, bringing out hers. "Could you put Shor's Stone on my map? If that's the name of this village, at any rate. I'm a little lost, I'm afraid." 

"Certainly," the blacksmith said, reaching over to point out the location of the village. A fair ways south of Windhelm. 

"Oh dear, I think I've been going in the wrong direction," Keolah said, peering at the map for a long moment before putting it away. 

No matter. All she had to do was backtrack a bit, head back the way she came from. Now, which way was that? She struck off away from Shor's Stone. And then promptly got distracted by picking flowers and electrocuting the local wildlife, drawing her away from the road again. 

Thoroughly lost, she eventually found her way back to the road, although she wasn't sure which direction she should be going in. Picking one at random, it wasn't long before she came upon what appeared to be a good-sized city. Well, this wasn't what she was looking for, but she wasn't going to complain. She was getting a little tired of wandering around in the wilderness as it was. 

"Hold there, traveler," the guard at the gate said. "Before you can enter Riften, you must pay the visitor's tax." 

"None of the other cities I've been to had a visitor's tax," Keolah said. 

"Well, Riften is different. That's the way we do things around here." 

"Can I get a Dragonborn discount?" Keolah asked. 

"No," the guard replied firmly. 

"Oh, hmm, how about..." Keolah waved her hand. "I don't need to pay the visitor's tax." 

The guard stared at her like she was insane. 

Keolah waved her hand again. "I've already paid the visitor's tax?" 

"You know, trying to use mind control powers would work better if you actually had mind control powers," the guard pointed out. 

"Drat," Keolah said. "Alright, how about the magic word. Please?" 

"Just pay the tax already, Elf," the guard said in exasperation. 

"I don't need to pay the visitor's tax!" Keolah insisted. "I'm the Dragonborn!" 

"You're the Dragonborn," the guard said dubiously. "Uh-huh, sure." 

" _FUS!_ " Keolah shouted. 

The guard staggered for a moment. "Alright, so maybe you _are_ the Dragonborn..." 

"Yes, I'm the Dragonborn!" Keolah said. "You definitely want me to be hanging around your city. I mean, if a dragon comes and attacks while I happen to be here, I can kill it! Maybe. Probably." 

The guard looked at her dubiously. "You're not exactly inspiring confidence here. But fine. You can go on in. If the jarl thought I were trying to keep out the Dragonborn..." 

"Thanks!" Keolah said, brightening immediately, and headed inside. 

She hardly got far past the gates before hearing whispers about the Thieves Guild in Riften. And something about them being in good with somebody who may or may not be important. Black-Briar? Wasn't that some kind of mead, or something? 

"You there, stranger," a man leaning casually against a post addressed her. "You in Riften looking for trouble?" 

"Well, no, I'm not really _looking_ for trouble, but it usually winds up finding me anyway," Keolah said. "Or at least, I wind up accidentally stumbling into it somehow." 

"Just watch yourself. The Black-Briars don't need anyone sticking their noses where it doesn't belong." 

"Don't worry, if I stick my nose somewhere, I'll probably be sticking the rest of me there too," Keolah said. "Fingers, toes, ears, firebolts... So, what, are you some sort of lookout, watching for random travelers to wander into the city?" 

"I watch the streets. If you need any dirt on anything, I can let you know about it, for a price." 

Keolah brushed self-consciously at her clothes. "I think I've got plenty of dirt on _me_ to begin with." 

The man looked at her strangely. "I'm not sure if we're speaking the same language here, or if you're just dense." 

"Of course we're speaking the same language," Keolah said. "If we weren't, we wouldn't be able to understand one another." 

"I... oh, never mind. Just, never mind." He turned and walked away. 

Keolah shrugged and continued on into the city. The place was made up of the usual dull brown wooden buildings, with bridges leading over canals that wound through the city. Peering down into one, she didn't think that the water looked especially like something she'd want to swim in. 

As she reached the marketplace, a Nord man approached her and said quietly, "You've never done an honest day's work in your life for all that coin you're carrying, have you, lass?" 

Keolah blinked at him, and self-consciously gripped her money pouch. "Define 'honest'." 

The Nord chuckled. "You and I have different definitions of 'honest' than most people, I think. I can tell." He introduced himself, "The name's Brynjolf, lass." 

"I'm Keolah. And how can you possibly know how much money I'm carrying?" Keolah said. "Do you have some spell that tells you what someone is carrying or something?" 

"It's all about sizing up your mark, lass," Brynjolf said. "What they're wearing, how they walk. It can give away more than you might realize." 

"And what else have you realized about me?" Keolah wondered. 

"That you act oblivious, like you're not paying attention to what's going on around you, but you're really paying attention to every little detail. But you might get distracted and miss something important." 

"Well... maybe," Keolah admitted, shifting a bit. 

"Now, how would you like to make a little more wealth, hmm?" 

"Always," Keolah replied. "What do you want me to do?" 

"There's what I like to hear," Brynjolf said. "I'm going to cause a distraction. While people aren't looking, I need you to break into Madesi's strongbox under his market stall and steal his silver ring. Then, you plant that ring on Brand-Shei to frame him for the theft. Got that?" 

"Wait a minute," Keolah said. 

"What, got a problem with breaking the law, lass?" Brynjolf said with a smirk. 

"No, no," Keolah said. "I was just going to ask, which stall is Madesi's, and who is Brand-Shei? You people really need to start wearing nametags or something. I'd look awfully silly if I broke into the wrong lockbox and then planted evidence on the wrong guy." 

Brynjolf laughed lightly at that. "I see your point, lass." He covertly indicated her targets. "Think you can handle this, eh?" 

"Sure," Keolah said. "Just one more question. How good of a distraction will this be?" 

"It'll be good enough if you don't do anything stupid," Brynjolf said. 

"Okay, so blowing up the stall is out of the question." 

Brynjolf looked at her as though reconsidering his proposition. "Just pick the lock with your lockpicks. No blowing anything up." 

"Right. Lockpicks," Keolah said, nodding nervously. "Alright, let's do this, then." 

There was a time when she might have been more hesitant to break the law, but in Skyrim, she found that she didn't care all that much. She was more concerned with getting caught, and even then, well, jail cells were more comfortable than some of the places she'd slept. 

As Brynjolf distracted the crowd in the marketplace with whatever snake oil he was peddling, Keolah snuck over to the stall he'd pointed her to. She was getting better at picking locks, and this one didn't seem too hard. Especially considering that the stall door appeared to be made of wicker or something. Carefully, she worked at the lock. There! Got it open! She wasn't a complete failure at this line of work after all! 

As she reached in to open up the strongbox, a finger tapped her on the shoulder. Keolah turned around slowly to look up at one of the local guards. 

"It's time to face the jarl's justice, thief," the guard said. 

So much for not failing at this. Keolah sighed. "Alright, what's the bounty?" 

"Five septims." 

"Is that it?" Keolah said, straightening and pulling out her money pouch. 

"You hadn't actually stolen anything yet," the guard said. "Do you really want to pay more?" 

"No, no," Keolah said. "Here." She shoved the handful of coins at him. 

The crowd around Brynjolf started to dissipate as he smoothly aborted his distraction upon seeing her speaking with the guard. She headed over toward him. 

"You got pinched, huh," Brynjolf said. "Maybe I expected too much of you." 

"Hey, I actually got the lock open without blowing anything up!" Keolah said. "That's something, isn't it?" 

"Lass, that lock was so easy..." Brynjolf smirked and shook his head. "Well, never mind. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Everything's been going poorly for us lately, and this is no different." 

"You owe me five septims," Keolah said, putting her hands on her hips. 

"You're going to argue over five septims? If you'd done better, we could have both stood to make a lot of money." 

"I can totally do better," Keolah insisted. "Just give me a chance. You'll see!" 

"That _was_ a chance," Brynjolf said. "But you do have that spark I'm looking for. There's still plenty of gold for the taking, if you can handle it. Head down into the Ratway and meet me in the Ragged Flagon tavern, and we'll talk more, alright?" 

"Where's the Ratway?" Keolah asked. 

"Under the city. I'm not going to hold your hand for you." 

"But... I'll get lost," Keolah protested. 

"If you can't even find it, maybe this isn't the sort of work for you," Brynjolf said. 

Keolah snorted softly. "I'll find it. Just don't count me out if you don't see me there immediately. I'll find it sooner or later." 

Brynjolf chuckled. "There's the spirit." He turned and headed off into a nearby building. 

What was it with people expecting her to find places on her own? She hadn't even intended to come to Skyrim in the first place. If she couldn't find something as big as a country, how did they think she was going to find anything smaller? Well, no matter. She'd just have to scour every inch of the Ratway to find the place, if need be. 

By the time she got down in the canals and found the entrance to the tunnels beneath the city, she realized that 'scour' was an apt word for it. Perhaps she should have expected the place to be filthy. She thought she should cleanse this whole place with _fire_. 

There were voices ahead, echoing a little in the stone tunnels, and a light. Were they other members of the Thieves Guild, she wondered? She strode forward to be friendly and introduce herself. 

"Hello!" Keolah said brightly. The two thugs proceeded to attempt to kill her. "Ack!" she said, scorching them with magic. "Was it something I said? Ow!" 

She managed to defeat them, but was badly hurt in the process. Nothing a little healing magic couldn't solve. A good thing her magic fixed her clothing, too, or she'd have gone through at least a dozen outfits by now. But no matter how much of a beating she took, it always wound up good as new. 

There, much better. All patched up again, Keolah strolled down the tunnel. Suddenly, the ground opened up beneath her, and she flailed about her arms to avoid falling. What was this? It looked like there was a bridge leading over a gap, but it was currently raised, and the mechanism was probably on the other side. How inconvenient. The drop didn't look too far, at least, and she saw no other way across, so she jumped down. Only after landing did she think that she probably should have checked to see if there was another way around first, and hoped that she could find a way back up again from here. 

After almost getting skewered by a trapped door, setting the floor on fire, being gnawed on by skeevers, having her leg caught in two different bear traps, and then getting hit with a swinging log, Keolah came to a room with sunlight streaming in from above. There were some plants growing at the bottom of the shaft, and butterflies! She completely ignored the bloody axe in the middle of that. 

Right. No getting distracted. Much. After catching the butterflies and picking the flowers, she focused and went to move on. Now which way had she come in, and which way was she supposed to go? Oh, bother. 

After another couple turns and misturns, Keolah finally reached what she hoped was the tavern she was looking for. If it could be called such, at any rate. The place looked more like a cistern than anything else. Who would want to put a tavern in a sewer? Well, the Thieves Guild, apparently. 

"You're all part of a dying breed!" someone was telling Brynjolf as she strode in. 

"Yeah, they're dying if they're stupid enough to attack me," Keolah said. Bravado, really, since there were more people in this 'tavern' than she could readily take on by herself all at once. 

"Ah, there you are, lass," Brynjolf said. "I was wondering if I'd ever see you again." 

"It didn't take me _that_ long to get here, did it?" Keolah said. "I only got a _little_ lost along the way. Er, and only sprung _most_ of the traps... I missed one of the bear traps, I think." 

Brynjolf chuckled. "Well, you made it here in one piece, and that's what counts, I suppose." 

"How'd you get here so fast, anyway?" Keolah asked. "Back door, I take it?" 

"Of course," Brynjolf said. "And I'll show it to you once you do a little task for me." 

"Another task? What this time?" 

"I want you to take care of a few deadbeats who won't pay their debts." 

"I'll get a cut for this, yes?" Keolah asked. 

"Certainly," Brynjolf assured her. "We take care of our own." 

"Alright, count me in, then. Who do you need me to shake down?" 

"Their names are Keerava, Bersi Honey-Hand, and Haelga," Brynjolf said. "Just be sure not to kill them. It's bad for business." 

"I always found it easiest to collect things from corpses," Keolah said with a shrug. 

"Perhaps, but that's not how we do things around here," Brynjolf said, shaking his head. "We're not the Dark Brotherhood." 

"Alright, alright. I'd feel bad about killing anyone that didn't deserve it, anyway. Or at least, trying to kill me. Or that annoyed me. Or in my way. Or that I was getting paid to kill. Or, um..." 

Brynjolf was giving her a look. 

"Right, no murder, got it," Keolah said. "I'll get right on that, then. As soon as I can find my way out of here again." 

She headed out of the Ragged Flagon. It probably would have taken her less time to find the way out if she'd realized that it was right next to the top of that bridge she'd seen earlier. By the time she made it back outside again, the day was growing late. The sun cast patches of orange across the cloudy sky as it slowly sank below the horizon. 

By that point, she realized that she couldn't remember the names of the people she was supposed to be collecting debts from. Maybe she should have had Brynjolf write down a list or something. 

Heading into a nearby building, she decided to try a roundabout method of figuring this out. This looked to be an inn called the Bee and Barb, run by a pair of Argonians. 

"I hear someone owes money to the Thieves Guild," Keolah said vaguely to the lizard sweeping the floor. 

"You're from the Thieves Guild?" the Argonian said, freezing. "Look, please don't hurt Keerava. I told her it was a bad idea to hold out on your group." 

"I'm not going to hurt anyone," Keolah assured him. 

"Keerava's got family on a farm in Morrowind," the Argonian whispered. "Mention them to her, and she'll pay up. Just please don't harm anyone." 

"Well, okay," Keolah said. If they were really going to make this job easier on her, she couldn't complain. She went over to the counter, assuming that Keerava was the one running the inn. "Keerava?" she asked to confirm. 

"That's me," the Argonian woman said. "What can I get for you?" 

"Your debt to the Thieves Guild," Keolah said. 

"Your guild is falling apart, and I'm not paying you," Keerava said. 

"No?" Keolah replied. "Well, if you don't have the money, maybe I should go bring some sweetrolls to that farm in Morrowind." 

Keerava said in shock, "How did you-- Never mind! Just take the money! Please don't hurt anyone!" 

Keolah took the pouch of septims from the Argonian innkeeper. "Don't worry. Thank you for your patronage." 

This next place appeared to be a pawnshop named the Pawned Prawn, and she went in to repeat her vague statement about someone owing money there. 

"Oh, you're one of those lowlifes, are you? Well, I'm not going to pay. Your guild just doesn't have the teeth they used to have." 

He must be another of her targets. Either that or he was just very eager to pay. Keolah strode over toward his counter. "You should probably just pay up, for your own sake." 

"Or what?" 

Keolah tried to lean back with faux nonchalance against the table against the wall, but slipped and inadvertently knocked an old pot to the floor, shattering it. "Oops." 

"My Dwemer urn!" the man said in shock. "Fine! I'll pay, just please don't break anything else!" 

Well, that was easy enough. Two down, one to go. So far so good. Not bad for not having any idea what she was doing. Keolah collected the money and headed on for the next building to try that again. This one was called Haelga's Bunkhouse. She repeated her spiel in there. 

"I might as well just throw gold into the sewer. I'm not scared of you. I'm not paying you people anything." 

"Please?" Keolah said. 

The woman snorted. "You're really bad at this, aren't you. Look, I don't even have the money right now. Tell Brynjolf I can pay him next month, alright?" 

"Oh," Keolah said. 

She didn't want to go back to Brynjolf empty-handed, however, so she decided to poke around the place a bit more, maybe find something to bring him at least. Say, that was an awfully _pretty_ statue of Dibella. She'd never seen one quite like that before. That would look lovely in her house. Well, once she got back to Whiterun and got the place fixed up, at any rate. 

"Hey!" called the woman as Keolah headed for the door with the statue in hand. "What are you doing with Lady Dibella? Give that back! Please! It's the only thing of value I have left!" 

Keolah sighed and went over to the counter and handed it to her, feeling bad about this. "Alright. Here you go." 

"Look, I get the message. Here's your gold. I hope you choke on it!" 

"I thought you said you didn't have the gold?" Keolah said, raising an eyebrow as she took the pouch, suddenly not feeling quite as bad. 

"Just get out of here." 

Keolah shrugged and left the building. Time to take the spoils back to Brynjolf. Or rather, time to spend the remainder of the evening lost in the Ratway again. She headed down, fell off the bridge, and managed to spring every trap she hadn't sprung the first time through, and even some that she had. 

"You got the job done and you did it clean," Brynjolf said when she made it back to the Flagon and handed over the money. "I like that. I'm sure you'll fit in quite well around here." 

"Right, that's great, can you show me to the back door now?" Keolah said with a smirk. 

Brynjolf chuckled. "Follow me. It's right this way. Let me show you around and introduce you to our Guild Master." 

"I hope you've got actual beds down here, too," Keolah said, yawning. "I'll meet him in the morning." 


	10. Arson, Burglary, and Boat Theft

Keolah woke the next morning, or at least she thought it was approximately morning, to find that she had apparently spent the night in a sewer. She wasn't sure which was more remarkable -- the fact that she'd slept in a sewer, or that it had been more comfortable than the inn in Markarth. At least the sewer had actual beds, for some reason. 

She didn't even get a chance to eat any breakfast before Brynjolf was dragging her over to meet a dark-haired human man. A Breton, not another Nord. 

"I hope this isn't going to be another waste of time and resources, Brynjolf," said the man Keolah presumed was the Guild Master. 

"This is the new recruit I mentioned," Brynjolf said. "Keolah, meet Mercer Frey, the leader of the Thieves Guild." 

"I see," Mercer said, turning to her. "Let me make this clear. You follow the rules, and you walk away rich. If you don't follow the rules, well, we're going to have problems, and you're _not_ going to wind up rich. Do you understand me?" 

"Rules?" Keolah wondered. "Aren't you guys supposed to be thieves?" 

"And we have rules," Mercer said. "Do you understand me?" 

"I'm not really much one for rules," Keolah said. "I tend to forget what they are." 

"Do you understand me?" Mercer repeated. 

"What are these rules, exactly, anyway?" Keolah said. 

"Do you understand me?" Mercer said again. 

"No, not really, not if you're not going to say what you expect of me," Keolah said. 

"Do you understand me?" 

"Are you even going to give me a chance to say no?" Keolah wondered. 

"Do you understand me?" 

"Maybe I'm not cut out to be a thief," Keolah said absently. "I could just go and steal stuff on my own time, you know?" 

"Do you understand me?" 

Keolah snorted at him and drawled, "Right, of course, I understand you perfectly and will be happy to follow all your rules, like a good little thief. I'd never conceive of lying to you or breaking your rules while you weren't looking." 

"Good," Mercer said. 

Keolah already didn't like him. 

He started babbling on about something or other, but Keolah had already stopped paying attention to him and was peering about the cistern. Talos, Brynjolf had said the Thieves Guild was on hard times, but shouldn't they at least have _some_ shiny trophies around here? There were beds, some chests, and a desk at the far end of the chamber. Maybe they just didn't feel the need to display their shinies in plain view? Or maybe they'd already sold them all just to be able to eat. Keolah knew that if she had shinies to display, she'd certainly be displaying them for all they were worth. And electrocute anyone that tried to swipe them. 

"Are you paying attention, Elf?" Mercer snapped. 

"Huh, what?" Keolah said, blinking at him and returning to the here and now. 

"Are you sure about this one?" Mercer asked aside to Brynjolf. "She seems a bit... lacking." 

"I have a hunch about her," Brynjolf said. "My instincts are never wrong!" 

Mercer looked at him dubiously and snorted. "No great loss if she doesn't come back, I say." 

"I'm right here, you know," Keolah said indignantly. 

"Actually paying attention now?" Mercer said. "Talk to Brynjolf for the details on the job. I've wasted enough time on this." He turned and strode away. 

"There's a job?" Keolah asked Brynjolf. 

"You might be well served to listen while you're trying to case the place," Brynjolf said with a smirk. "Anyway. I want you to go to Goldenglow Estate. It's vital to one of our most important clients. Goldenglow is a bee farm. Burn a few of the beehives and clear out the safe to show the wood elf who owns it that we mean business." 

Keolah blinked at him. "What's so important about bees?" 

"They make the honey that keeps the mead flowing," Brynjolf said. 

"Mead," Keolah said, rolling her eyes. "Silly Nords. Mead. _Serious business._ " 

"You can knock it all you want, but Maven Black-Briar will be quite cross if her profits get cut into much more because of this," Brynjolf said. 

"Fine, fine, I get the idea," Keolah said, doing her best to restrain amused laughter at the idea. "Anything else I should know about the job?" 

"The owner has hired mercenaries, so be careful," Brynjolf said. "And be sure not to burn the entire place to the ground." 

"Right," Keolah said. "Why do people always think I need to be warned of that? It's not like I've accidentally burned anyplace to the ground! I've only been arrested for semi-accidental arson _once_ , and the house was even still standing afterward!" 

Brynjolf looked at her as though reconsidering asking her to do this particular job. "Um. Right. Anyway, talk to Delvin and Vex for side jobs if you're interested in some extra coin, and see Tonilia about getting set up with some armor." 

"Oh!" Keolah said brightly. "I get armor? Just for joining?" 

"Certainly." 

Keolah's eyes narrowed. "Wait. This is going to be some crappy cast-off armor that the rest of you didn't want, isn't it. I'm getting old, used armor, aren't I... Oh, whatever. I'll take a look." 

She went to skip back to the Ragged Flagon without waiting for a response. The dirty bunch of thieves were sitting around the makeshift tavern drinking swill and munching on meager portions. She supposed that she couldn't expect thieves to wear nametags. 

"Hey!" Keolah said. "Which one of you is Tonilia?" 

Everyone pointed to a petite Redguard woman. 

"Thanks," she said, going over to talk to the one indicated. 

"So, you're the new recruit, huh," Tonilia said. "You and I are going to get very well acquainted. I'm the fence down here, and if you bring me anything you didn't legally acquire, I can take it off your hands and give you some coin for it." 

"Brynjolf said you had armor for me," Keolah said. 

"Right, the armor," Tonilia said, digging out a well-worn suit of leather armor from a crate. "Here you go." 

Keolah looked it over critically, then shrugged. "I suppose it'll do. You know, I'm a mage, and mages are usually going around wearing robes and dresses. Trouble is, you wind up tripping and stumbling over them a lot, and I'm quite clumsy enough without having to deal with that, too." 

Tonilia looked at her strangely, and said, "Why exactly are you here again?" 

Keolah ignored the question. "Have you got a nice private room where I can get changed in, perhaps? Every place around here seems awfully public and open." 

"I'm sure you can find someplace around here," Tonilia replied dryly. 

After poking around a bit, Keolah resorted to getting changed in an unoccupied room full of empty chests that she didn't think anyone was likely to bother her in. The smooth, black leather armor might not be brand new, but it fit well and she could move easily enough in it. If she was going to be a thief, she might as well look the part. Although wasn't that kind of defeating the purpose? Whatever. 

"Brynjolf," she said, coming out and finding him in the cistern. "Where's the back entrance, anyway?" 

"Ah, it's right over here," Brynjolf said, showing her to a ladder leading up at one side of the cistern. "It leads up into the graveyard. When you want to come back, press the button on the sarcophagus and it'll open right back up. Good luck at Goldenglow." 

"Right," Keolah said. 

Past the door Brynjolf had shown her, she found stairs leading up to a blank ceiling, and wound up spending several minutes looking for some way to open it from _this_ side before noticing the pull chain hanging right next to her. That was embarrassing. Good thing nobody noticed that one. She pulled it, and the way opened up with the sound of stone grinding against stone. 

"Very subtle," she muttered, climbing up the stairs and wondering how nobody noticed that by now. "Ooh, nightshade!" She eagerly went to harvest the plants. 

Once she'd collected all the alchemical ingredients in the area, she headed for the marketplace. She had a job to do, and she didn't care to go about it by herself. Maybe she should have tried to convince one of those with the Thieves Guild to come along, but perhaps it was best to leave them be. They seemed quite content to sit around in their sewer, after all. Was it any wonder they were doing so poorly? 

First things first, however, she headed over to the Bee and Barb inn for breakfast. They'd certainly have better fare here than at the Ragged Flagon, and she didn't care to eat whatever they'd dredged up in the sewer. The Argonians who ran the place gave her sour looks and probably overcharged her, but they let her eat in peace. 

Once she had something in her stomach, she went around the inn to see if anyone was interested in accompanying her. 

"Why hire on a common warrior like these Nords?" said one Imperial man. "My name is Marcurio. With me, you could have a master of the arcane at your side!" 

"Oh! You're a mage?" Keolah said. 

"Indeed I am," Marcurio said. "With my magic, our foes would fall before us. My fee is but five hundred septims." 

"Hmm," Keolah said. "That seems a bit steep to pay per day, even for a mage." 

"No, no, not per day," Marcurio said. "Just five hundred up front. That's all." 

"What, five hundred septims and you'll follow me around forever?" Keolah said, raising an eyebrow. 

"Certainly," Marcurio said. "Well, I'll expect to be fed and I might get bored easily and wander off if you tell me to stay somewhere for too long. But other than that, sure." 

Keolah snickered softly. "You sound like my kind of human. Alright, consider yourself hired." She went to dig out the coins from her purse. "My name's Keolah, by the way. Although I was really hoping to find someone who could help me carry valuables." 

"I'm not some mere pack mule," Marcurio said. "If you want that, find some big burly Nord to do that for us." 

"There probably won't be much loot where we're going first, anyway," Keolah said, handing the fee over to him. "Let's go." 

As the two of them headed out the gates of Riften, Marcurio asked, "So, where are we heading?" 

"Goldenglow Estate," Keolah replied, and then something occurred to her that made her smack her forehead. "Oh, bother, I forgot to ask for directions." 

"Goldenglow?" Marcurio said. "It's that bee farm out on that island over there." He pointed off across the lake. 

"It's on an island?" Keolah said. She looked uneasily at the water. "Ugh. That water looks so cold. And _wet_." 

"Indeed," Marcurio said. "We should take a boat." 

"A boat!" Keolah said brightly. "Brilliant idea!" 

She went over to the nearest small boat, untied it from the dock and hopped into it, followed by the Imperial man, and then very nearly overturned the thing accidentally. She grabbed the sides of the boat and tried to steady herself, and it. 

"Um. I don't suppose you know how to work one of these things?" Keolah asked sheepishly. 

"Don't look at me," Marcurio said. "How hard could it be?" 

They each took an oar and attempted to paddle the boat out toward the island, but only wound up going in circles and very nearly capsized their craft in the process. 

"You know, this isn't working," Keolah said. 

"You don't say," Marcurio said. 

"Forget this," Keolah said. "Magic to the rescue!" 

She stood up, making the boat rock ominously, and then cast a firebolt spell at the water at the back of the craft. Instead of propelling the boat forward, it flipped the craft end over end and send them plunging into the icy cold water. 

"Ack!" Keolah sputtered, and managed to climb on top of the overturned boat. 

Marcurio surfaced beside her. "Well, so much for that idea. Can you swim?" 

"I don't know about swimming, but I can dog paddle with the best of them," Keolah said. "I've had entirely too many accidents around water not to be able to do that much, at least. Bah, already soaked now, no help for that. Let's swim over, I suppose." 

Leaving their failed attempt at boating behind, they swam over toward the island and climbed out of the water onto the rocks at its shore. Keolah sighed and brought some fire magic to hand, hoping to dry off and warm up a bit at least. 

"Alright..." Keolah said, shaking herself off. "I'm told there's mercenaries here, so be alert." 

"They won't stand any chance against our magic," Marcurio said. 

It didn't take the mercenaries long to figure out that there were intruders on the island. Arrows went thwipping through the air, and Marcurio cried out and sent fire and lightning raining back at them. The two of them got separated for a while, but between them, the mercenaries on the island didn't stand a chance. Keolah laughed aloud as she incinerated another archer who was trying to shoot at her. This was fabulous! 

As she crossed over a wooden bridge, she heard a distinctive chiming sound from somewhere very close. What was that? Ah! She'd know that sound anywhere! She jumped off the side of the bridge to find some glowing green stalks underneath it. Nirnroot, what a wonderful find! She harvested the plant, oblivious to the sounds of Marcurio's shouts and electrical zaps from not far away. 

Once the nirnroot was firmly in her pack, she went to climb back up onto the island again. It was steep and difficult, but after some searching she found a place where she could manage it near where Marcurio was currently still fighting. 

"I was wondering where you'd wandered off to," he said. 

"Got distracted," Keolah said, putting both hands together to send a powerful firebolt into one mercenary's chest. 

"I know how that goes," Marcurio replied. "What do we need to do here, anyway?" 

"First off, burn the beehives," Keolah said. 

"Easy enough," Marcurio said. 

They headed over to one side of the island and sent fire spells into the beehives, sending streams of smoke choking toward the sky from every one of them. The field in front of the hives was full of mountain flowers, and Keolah compulsively bent down to start picking them. 

"You aren't seriously going to pick all of these, are you?" Marcurio asked, raising an eyebrow. 

"Um..." Keolah said, looking uneasily toward the beehives. "BEEEEEES!" She went running headlong toward the building. 

"Keolah?" Marcurio said, jogging up to catch up to her. "We weren't being chased by bees." 

"They're just waiting," Keolah said, panting a little. "Laying in wait for the opportunity. They're sinister like that." 

Marcurio looked at her dubiously. "You're nuts." He smirked. "Was there anything else we needed to do here?" 

"Clear out the safe," Keolah said. "That should be inside, probably." 

"Ah, good," Marcurio said. "I was starting to wonder if this was going to be too easy. Then let's lay waste to the place." 

The two of them headed inside the building. It was made primarily of wood, and crawling with mercenaries. Fire flew this way and that as the two mages took down everyone that tried to attack them. So long as they were here, Keolah pocketed everything that looked valuable along the way as well. 

There were a few wooden doors that were locked and refused to be opened, so Keolah burned them down to claim the loot that was behind them. By the time they made it to the second floor, Keolah was already coughing at the smoke in the air. 

"Maybe we overdid it a little," Marcurio said. "Not to worry. I have just the spell for this." He waved his hands, and the air cleared away, allowing them to breathe easily. "It's a weaker variant of the water breathing spell." 

"You've got to teach me that spell," Keolah said. 

"Sorry, I don't do teaching," Marcurio said with a smirk. 

"Blast." 

Marcurio blasted a nearby mercenary with lightning on cue. 

"That wasn't what I meant, but that works too," Keolah said. 

After scorching more of the thugs and causing no end of collateral damage, they came upon an elf cowering behind a dresser and coughing at the smoke. 

"Oh, those useless mercenaries weren't worth the septims they were paid," the well-dressed elf said. 

"That they weren't," Marcurio agreed. 

"Huh, a bee in a jar," Keolah said, going over to peer at the curious knickknack sitting on the dresser. She picked it up and peered in at it. "Neat." 

Marcurio smirked and cleared his throat. 

"Is the breathing spell wearing off?" Keolah said, looking at him in concern. 

"We're here for a safe, aren't we?" Marcurio said. 

"Oh yeah," Keolah said, turning to the elf. "Hmm, wait a minute. You're an Altmer. I was told this place was owned by a Bosmer?" 

"I was adopted!" the obvious high elf replied. 

"Maybe you're just confused..." Keolah said with a shrug. 

"The safe?" Marcurio reminded her. 

"Right," Keolah said. "Where's your safe and the key to it? Maybe we'll even help you out of your burning house if you cooperate," she added cheerfully. 

"You fools, you've ruined everything!" the estate owner said. "I didn't have much choice. I didn't think Maven and Mercer would let me get away with this. But now you've destroyed everything I've worked for, and Maven will be enraged about the damage you've done here!" 

He pulled out a knife and attacked her. Keolah was so surprised at this that she didn't even defend herself at first. This weak 'wood' elf in ordinary clothes was actually pitifully attacking her with a crappy knife? 

Marcurio casually set him on fire. "Shouldn't have tried to attack us." 

"Oh well," Keolah said, collecting the key from his corpse and making a face while doing so. "Let's go raid the safe. Oh, and carry this." She handed him the bee in a jar. 

"What am I supposed to do with... gah," Marcurio said. 

As they headed downstairs, it quickly became clear that the entire ground floor was on fire by this point. Keolah hurried down into the basement. They'd thoroughly checked the other floors and hadn't seen any sign of a strong box, so it had to be down there. 

"Let's hope the whole house doesn't collapse on top of us," Marcurio said. 

"No kidding," Keolah agreed. 

Past a large pool of oil (which caught on fire), she found the safe Brynjolf had told her about. Before opening it, she directed healing magic at Marcurio after having to trudge through the burning oil. 

"A healing spell? Thanks," Marcurio said. "Let's raid the thing and get out of here. Looks like there's a sewer grate over there. Should be safe in there." 

Using the key she'd gotten from the wood elf, Keolah opened the safe with some urgency and scooped out everything inside into her bag without looking at it, and then scrambled into the sewer. She could breathe more easily with solid stone above her head. 

They headed out of the sewer posthaste and out into fresh air once again. "Safe and sound," Keolah said, beaming. "A job well done, if I do say so myself." 

"If the objective was to set everything on fire, at least," Marcurio said. 

"Yeah, I do think he mentioned something about burning the place to the ground," Keolah said. "I'd hate to disappoint." 

She looked around a bit for an easier way off the island. The heat and flame had dried her off for the most part and she didn't care to go for a dip again. At the very least, she went to see which side of the island might involve the shortest swim. In doing so, she discovered a bridge leading straight to the mainland. 

"There's a bridge!" Keolah said, looking to Marcurio in a huff. "You didn't mention there was a bridge!" 

"Hey, you should be glad I knew where the place even _was_ ," Marcurio retorted. 

Keolah snorted softly and crossed the bridge, making her way back toward Riften. "Time to report back in to the Thieves Guild." 

"You're with the Thieves Guild?" Marcurio said, raising an eyebrow. 

"Yep," Keolah said. "You got a problem with that?" 

Marcurio let out a bark of laughter. "No, I'm just kind of surprised. If you're supposed to be a thief, then you must be the worst one I've ever run across." 

"Hey!" Keolah protested. 

"A fine mage, but a bad thief," Marcurio amended. "I mean, you can't argue that this was the least bit subtle." He gestured toward the island where Goldenglow Estate was letting off a nice 'golden' glow. 

"But it got the job done," Keolah said. 

It was late by the time they made it back to Riften and wandered around a bit to locate the graveyard. Keolah pressed the hidden button and descended into the Thieves Guild headquarters to report back. 

Brynjolf was entirely too annoyed with her to notice, or care, about the stranger she'd let into their midst. "You!" he said. "You really messed things up good. I told you not to burn the place to the ground! Maven is furious, and you can forget about your cut!" 

Keolah's face fell, and she hung her head. "Oh... Oops." 

"Oops?" Brynjolf repeated, snorting. "That's all you have to say for yourself? Did you at least clear out the safe?" 

"Oh, yeah," Keolah said, pulling out her bag. "Here's what I found in the safe." 

"Ah, good, you at least did something right," Brynjolf said, pausing as he looked over a scrap of paper she'd found in the safe. "What's this? That fool Bosmer sold the estate? He'll regret that..." 

"No, he won't," Marcurio replied. "He's dead." 

"Ah. Well. Maven's asked to see you personally," Brynjolf said to Keolah. 

"Tonight?" Keolah said, raising an eyebrow. 

"You'd best not keep her waiting." 

Keolah sighed. "I was hoping to get some dinner and sleep, but alright. Unless she's going to skin me alive for screwing up the mission, in which case I'm going to skip town and be halfway to Markarth by morning." 

Brynjolf chuckled without humor. "If she wanted you dead, she'd be calling on the Dark Brotherhood, and being on the other side of Tamriel wouldn't help you then. No, she just wants to talk." 

"Talk. Just talk," Keolah said, nodding. "Alright, I'll go talk to her, then." 

Keolah was afraid that she'd wind up spending the remainder of the night wandering around Riften trying to find her, but to her surprise, she ran across a woman in the streets shortly after leaving the Thieves Guild who could only be Maven Black-Briar, from her indignant reproach. 

"So _you're_ the one who burned down Goldenglow Estate. Do you have any idea how much that little stunt of yours is going to cost me?" 

Yeah, had to be Maven Black-Briar. "Uh, sorry," Keolah said sheepishly. "I got a little confused between 'burn it down' and 'don't burn it down'. Really, if someone wants something not burned down, they shouldn't say anything about burning it down..." 

Maven looked at her incredulously. "The only reason we're even having this conversation is because Brynjolf assured me that you wouldn't botch another mission." 

"If you need something else destroyed, I'm the one to talk to," Keolah said brightly. 

Maven sighed and put her face in her palm. "I would prefer that _this one_ be kept intact, do you understand me?" 

"Oh," Keolah said, looking at the ground. "Alright, alright. I'll try _really hard_ not to burn the next place down. What's my target?" 

"I want you to head to Whiterun, and meet up with a man named Mallus Maccius at the Bannered Mare Inn," Maven replied. 

"Malleus Marcus?" Keolah said. 

"Mallus Maccius," Maven corrected. 

"Marius Malcus?" Keolah said. 

" _Mallus Maccius_ ," Maven said firmly. "Bah! Just look for an Imperial in a vest. He'll fill you in on the details." 

"Alright, alright," Keolah said. 

"And let me remind you one more time just in case we weren't clear on this," Maven said. "If you screw this one up, you _will_ be sorry." 

"Right..." Keolah said, turning to Marcurio. "Let's stick to lightning spells this time." 

"Lightning can still start fires!" Maven snapped. 

"Ice spells, then," Marcurio said. 

"I don't know any ice spells," Keolah said, frowning. 

"I have no idea what Brynjolf sees in you," Maven said. 

"A powerful Altmer mage who happens to be the Dragonborn?" Keolah ventured. 

"So far, I'm not impressed," Maven said. "Do try to change my mind." She walked away. 

"Are we setting out for Whiterun now?" Marcurio wondered as Keolah turned to walk down the street. 

"No," Keolah replied. "We're getting dinner and a good night's sleep. Maven can very well wait." 

"I don't think she'll like that," Marcurio said. 

"Tough," Keolah said. "I'm hungry and tired." 

"Tempting fate," Marcurio said with a chuckle. "I'm so glad I'm just the hired help..." 

"Everyone always wants everything done immediately," Keolah said. "Most of them aren't actually as urgent as they make them out to be, though." 

"Most of them aren't as capable of making your life miserable as Maven," Marcurio said. "But it's your funeral." 


	11. Entirely Too Many Steps

Before leaving Riften, Keolah stopped by the Ragged Flagon to check if Vex and Delvin had any jobs for her in Whiterun. They were quite eager to complain to her about wanting a job in a specific place, but really now, what did they expect her to do, run all over Skyrim just for their schemes? They wound up wanting to send her to Windhelm instead, and she just took the jobs after getting tired of arguing about it. 

While she was there, she showed Vex a shiny gem that she'd picked up somewhere but wasn't sure what to do with. Turned out, it was some fabled stone of something she couldn't pronounce, and she'd need to find twenty-four of the things if she expected anyone to buy them. She grumbled a little at that, wondering just where she was going to track down these things, and if she was just going to haul them all around until she got them all. 

"So," Marcurio said as they headed out the secret entrance to the Thieves' Guild in the cemetery. "Want me to remind you about those jobs when we get to Windhelm?" 

"I've already forgotten them," Keolah said lightly. 

The two of them headed out the gates of Riften and past the stables. As they caught wind of the smell of horses, Marcurio suggested, "Maybe it would be quicker to take a cart?" 

"That costs money," Keolah said, waving off the suggestion. "Besides, I've been to Whiterun before. I know where we're going." 

"Walking it is, then," Marcurio said with a shrug. 

They headed out along the road, which quickly got distracted by Keolah rushing off to pick mountain flowers and catch a couple of blue butterflies. After trudging off the road for a bit, they came upon a path leading beside the lake and headed along that instead. 

As they passed by an old, half-ruined fort, some bandits started shooting at them and unleashed some dogs. Once the bandits and canines were down, Keolah glanced over to see Marcurio still zapping at something. She could sense there was something still nearby, and it was no bandit. A gout of icy cold set her to shivering as frost formed rapidly on the ground around her. 

"Oh," she said, looking up at the sky. "A dragon." 

Still a bit winded from the bandits, she hurled lightning bolts at the dragon as it hung in the air, along with Marcurio's fire and lightning. The dragon roared and flew over to the other side of the ruined fort, and although she couldn't see it over there, she heard it land on the ground with an earthy thud. 

"Oh, stay still and let me kill you," Keolah said. 

She circled around the stone walls to send another lightning bolt at the creature. With a final shriek at the sky, the dragon collapsed. The body burst into flames, and swirling energy surged in her veins as she absorbed its power. 

"You know," Keolah said, catching her breath afterward. "Maybe I shouldn't be so afraid of these things after all." 

"Why should you be afraid of them in the first place?" Marcurio said. "You're the Dragonborn, after all." 

"Hmm, I think you might have a point there," Keolah said. She went over to pick at the corpse. "Hey, carry these bones for me, will you?" 

Marcurio huffed at that. "I am not a pack mule!" 

"Yeah, but I'm the Dragonborn!" Keolah said with a grin. "Besides, you might not be able to carry as much as a big, strong Nord with more muscles than brains, but you can certainly carry something, and think about how valuable these are!" 

"True," Marcurio conceded, reluctantly gathering up what he could. 

After crossing a bridge and passing by a mill, a Khajiit with a knife ran up to them and said, "Hand over your valuables!" 

Keolah looked at the cat like he was crazy. "Seriously? You're trying to mug a couple of mages, in broad daylight, even? Admittedly I'm not _dressed_ like a mage at the moment, but Marcurio here is totally wearing mage robes." 

"You look like you're swimming in gold!" the would-be robber said. "Now hand it over! I am not going to ask again." 

"Besides," Keolah said. "I'm with the Thieves Guild. Don't you recognize the armor I'm wearing? They handed it to me just for joining, although I'm sure they just wanted to get rid of some old rubbish that was laying around and collecting dust." 

"Oh," the Khajiit said, lowering his knife and relaxing. "Sorry, my mistake. Have a nice day." He turned to walk off. 

Keolah muttered to Marcurio, "I'm half tempted to shove a lightning bolt up his tail anyway." 

It was growing late as they crossed another bridge and arrived in a village, and Keolah figured it best to hole up here for the night. 

"I'll take it by the fact that you haven't protested any of my directions that we're going the right way," Keolah said. 

"Yes, this route will get us to Whiterun," Marcurio said, then smirked at her. "I thought you said you knew the way." 

"I do!" Keolah protested. "I totally do. I just, um, get lost sometimes." 

"Uh-huh," Marcurio said. 

Keolah headed into town and glanced about for something that looked like an inn, and headed inside. 

"Don't get many visitors up here," said the innkeeper. "Unless they're heading up to High Hrothgar, of course. You don't look like a pilgrim to me, but I suppose I've seen stranger things." 

"I'm not going to High Hrothgar," Keolah replied. "Well, not yet anyway. I'll probably head up there sooner or later, but I have other things to do first, you know? I'm just on my way to Whiterun at the moment." 

"Of course, of course," the innkeeper said. "Can I get you a drink, something to eat, a room for the night?" 

Keolah opted for all of the above, and quickly retired to her room to get away from everyone in the inn wanting to talk about High Hrothgar and assuming that she must be on her way up there. In fact, the only one who didn't want to talk about High Hrothgar just wanted to complain about bears and offer a bounty for bear pelts. 

In the morning, she headed out with Marcurio, intending to take the road to Whiterun and hoping to be there by nightfall. A trio of hired thugs showed up wanting to teach them a lesson just outside the inn. 

"What was that all about?" Marcurio wondered as they stood over the three corpses. The thugs hadn't lasted long. 

"I have no idea," Keolah said. 

"What, don't know anyone you've annoyed lately?" 

"Not that I _remember_ , anyway..." Keolah said, looking off thoughtfully, then shrugged. On the body of one of the thugs, there was a contract from someone named Wujeeta. "I don't even _know_ a Wujeeta!" She stuffed it in her bag anyway. 

On the way out of town, they ran across two men talking by a bridge. 

"Heading up to High Hrothgar again, Klimmek?" said one. 

"Not today," said Klimmek. "My legs aren't what they used to be, and I'm just not up to climbing the Seven Thousand Steps much anymore." 

"Aren't the Greybeards expecting some supplies?" 

As Keolah drew close, Klimmek noticed her and said, "Good day. You passing through on the way up to High Hrothgar?" 

"Why does everyone assume I'm going up to High Hrothgar?" Keolah wondered. 

"Because you're the Dragonborn?" Marcurio suggested helpfully. 

"Don't see why else you'd be here," Klimmek said. "There's not much in Ivarstead for anyone. Well, if you _are_ heading up there, I have a bag of supplies to be delivered up there." 

Keolah's eye twitched. She didn't really care to climb any Seven Thousand Steps, but... there was a delivery to be made. And, she supposed, she ought to talk to the Greybeards sometime or another anyway. Learning about these Shouts might be nice. 

"I'll take them up for you," Keolah offered. 

"That's great!" Klimmek said, handing her the bag. "Just put them in the offering chest outside. I'm sure they'll be grateful for them." 

"Right," Keolah said. 

She shoved it into her pack and headed up toward the mountain with a sigh. 

"Change your mind, huh?" Marcurio said with a smirk. 

Keolah grumbled under her breath. "Let's just go and get this over with." 

It wasn't difficult to find the path up to High Hrothgar, with broad stone steps being set into the dirt along the slopes of the mountain, and of course, etched stones alongside the path that babbled entirely more than Keolah cared about the history of dragons and whatever. 

As they ascended the mountain, the air grew steadily colder, and soon there was a layer of snow along the ground. 

"You know, there's one good thing about snow," Keolah commented. 

"What's that?" Marcurio asked. 

"Snowberries," Keolah said brightly, going to pick some. 

Marcurio snorted softly. "If you hate snow so much, what are you doing in Skyrim?" 

"Got lost," Keolah replied with a shrug. 

"Why does that not surprise me?" 

Keolah tried to keep herself warm against the biting wind as they climbed the steps. 

"I think as many of these steps go down as go up..." Keolah commented. "Whoever built this path was really not in a hurry to get to the top of the mountain." 

She stopped and talked briefly with a pilgrim who was sitting in the snow meditating at one of the etched tablets, who thought it was exciting that the Greybeards had called for the Dragonborn. Not really wanting to stand around in the snow and chat, Keolah continued on quickly. 

After a bit, Marcurio said, "Um, Keolah? We're back at the third emblem. That woman back there was meditating at the fourth one." 

"You're actually reading these things?" Keolah wondered. 

"They're interesting," Marcurio said with a shrug. 

Keolah sighed. "I must have gotten turned around. And I was wondering why the snowberry bushes looked like they'd already been picked clean." 

She headed back in the other direction, really not wanting to spend anymore time on this mountain than necessary. She stayed well away from the edge of the path. It was quite a long way down, and she was kind of grateful for the clouds at least partially obscuring the view. 

Finally, mercifully, they reached the top of the mountain around midday. With fingers numbed by cold, Keolah put the supplies Klimmek had given to her inside the offering chest, then headed up the final steps to the doors. Hopefully, it would be warmer inside, maybe even have a nice fire going, but if nothing else, it would be out of the wind. 

Inside the vaulted stone temple, a tranquil silence hung over the place, and their footsteps echoed like thunder within the halls. Keolah relaxed upon realizing that it was fairly warm inside, and a number of blazing braziers lined the walls. 

"So, a Dragonborn has come, at this fateful time," an old robed man said, approaching her. 

"Yeah, yeah, I'm here," Keolah said. "You called?" 

"We must see if you truly have the gift," the Greybeard said. "Let us taste of your Voice." 

Keolah raised an eyebrow at him and gave him an odd look. "You know, that sounds kind of bad." 

"Oh, just Shout at me," the Greybeard said. 

"Why didn't you just say that?" Keolah said. " _FUS!_ " 

The old man staggered back under her Unrelenting Force ability. "So, it is true. Welcome, Dragonborn. I am Master Arngeir. I speak for the Greybeards." 

"Nice to meet you. I'm Keolah. I go places and do things." 

"Now, tell me, Dragonborn, why have you come to High Hrothgar?" Arngeir asked. 

Keolah gave him another look. "You asked me to come, didn't you? Although you kind of called me in a bit of an earthquake or something. You know, yelling so loudly that all of Skyrim can hear the word 'Dovahkiin' isn't really very subtle." She paused. "I was meaning to put it off, though, but somebody wanted me to deliver some supplies." She jerked a thumb back toward the entrance. "Some salted meats and stuff out in the chest out there." 

"Ah, excellent!" Arngeir said. "We're almost out of pork sausage. I hope you brought some. It is most delicious." 

"I didn't look," Keolah said. "So, did you call me up here to teach me stuff? Because I wouldn't mind learning a bit." 

"Provided you can pay attention long enough," Marcurio said, absently roasting a bit of sausage over a brazier. 

"Oh, like you can talk," Keolah retorted. 

"Let us see if you have the capacity to learn," Arngeir said. 

He started going on about her dragon blood, words of power, and so forth, but she wasn't really paying attention by that point and was trying to sort out in her head all of the things people had asked her to do. She was sure she was forgetting something that may or may not be important, but couldn't quite put her finger on what. 

"Are you listening, Dragonborn?" Arngeir asked. 

"Oh, yeah, of course," Keolah replied. 

They taught her the second word in Unrelenting Force, "Ro", and asked her to demonstrate that she had learned it properly. That shouldn't be too hard, she thought. It was a little disorienting to learn things directly from their minds like this, but not all that much different from what happened when she killed a dragon. 

" _FUS-RO!_ " Keolah shouted at Arngeir. 

Arngeir staggered back against the wall. "Yes, that is the correct Shout. But I meant that you should demonstrate it on the target, not on me." 

" _FUS-RO!_ " Keolah shouted at some pots, sending them scattering. 

"No, the target..." Arngeir protested. 

" _FUS-RO!_ " she directed at Marcurio. 

He fell back onto his bottom and said, "Hey! You almost made me drop my sausage!" 

Arngeir sighed. "Never mind. I suppose that will be sufficient. Let us move on. Follow Master Borri to the courtyard." 

One of the Greybeards headed toward the large doors at the far side of the building. Very slowly. 

"You guys aren't in any great hurry to do anything up here, are you," Keolah muttered. "Master Boring is more like it." 

Borri didn't respond. 

"Although I don't really blame you, I suppose," Keolah added. "I'm not that eager to get back out into the cold and wind, either." 

When they stepped outside, Borri shouted, " _LOK-VAH-KOOR!_ " The effect was immediate. The cutting wind calmed to a gentle breeze, the snow ceased to fall, and the clouds parted to allow warm sunlight to spill down from the sky. 

"No fair," Keolah said. "I want to learn _that_ Shout!" 

"In due time," Arngeir said. "When you are ready." 

"Aww," Keolah said. "Come on!" 

"Master Borri will teach you the Whirlwind Sprint ability," Arngeir said. 

Keolah sighed. "Alright, alright..." 

The Word of Power for this one was "Wuld". Keolah impatiently listened and absorbed the knowledge, not really caring or paying too much attention. She wandered off to see if there were any snowberries growing up here. 

"Dragonborn?" Arngeir said. "Over here. Come and demonstrate your knowledge of the Whirlwind Sprint." 

"Oh, right," Keolah said, heading over to a spot in front of a large metal gate. 

"Master Borri will open the gate," Arngeir said. "Use the Whirlwind Sprint to get through it before it closes." 

"Right," Keolah said. "Let's do this." 

" _Bex!_ " Borri said, and the gate opened. 

Keolah stared at him at that. She was expecting that he would just _open_ the gate, not speak a Word of Power to open it. She was hardly one to speak of using magic or other similar powers gratuitously, but these old men seemed to take their power more seriously than that. 

"Dragonborn?" Arngeir said once the gate had closed. "Focus." 

"Oh," Keolah said. "Oops. Right. Sorry." 

" _Bex!_ " Borri said, opening the gate again. 

" _FUS!_ " Keolah shouted, sending snow flying from the ground in front of her. 

"No, no," Arngeir said. "Use the Whirlwind Sprint, not Unrelenting Force. You've already demonstrated that you can use Unrelenting Force." 

"Sorry, got confused for a moment there," Keolah said. 

"Of course," Arngeir said. "Let us try this again." 

" _Bex!_ " Borri said a third time. 

" _WULD!_ " Keolah shouted. The power propelled her through the air, and she slammed into the rocks to the right side of the gate. "Umph..." Using that ability was definitely a little disorienting, but... kind of fun, actually. Provided she didn't hit something. That just stung. 

Arngeir sighed. "I think we shall call this good enough." 

Marcurio finished up his lunch and yawned boredly. 

"For your last trial, you must retrieve the horn of Jurgen Windcaller from the ancient fane of Ustengrav," Arngeir said. 

"Okay," Keolah said, not really caring who Jurgen Windcaller was or why they wanted his horn. She handed her map to him. Arngeir looked at her questioningly, and she said, "You're going to have to mark where that is, or I'm never going to find it." 

"Ah, of course," Arngeir said, and made a note of a location on the map. 

"Let's go," Keolah said, tilting her head toward Marcurio. "If we get moving, we can get back down this mountain again before dark." 

As they passed through the temple, Keolah knocked over a number of pots and sent some books scattering with Unrelenting Force. The Greybeards didn't react in the slightest, and she quickly got bored of that and headed out the front doors. 

"Hmm," Marcurio said, looking off the edge of the path. "I think I can see Whiterun from here." 

"Really?" Keolah said. "I can't see anything. But I'll take your word on it. Say, that would be a much shorter path than the way we took up." 

She walked over to the edge and hopped down to the rock below. 

Marcurio looked at her incredulously. "You're going down _here_?" 

"Sure, why not?" Keolah said. "Come on, it's not even that steep." 

"Uh..." Marcurio said, suddenly looking uneasy. 

"Ah, don't be a sissy," Keolah said. 

" _You_ were the one who seemed afraid of falling on the way up," Marcurio said. 

"Bah, you sound like Ralof," Keolah said. 

Marcurio sighed. "Fine, let's go. You certainly keep things interesting. But if I get killed, I'm coming back to annoy you." 

The mountain slope turned out to be not that difficult to descend, and it put them down near the pair of bridges near Whiterun. Keolah cheerfully strode toward the city. 

"See?" she said. "That was an excellent shortcut!" 

"I should have asked for hazard pay," Marcurio muttered, looking a little ill. 

"What, climbing down a mountain was worse than fighting dragons?" Keolah said. 

"At least I can solve that problem with lightning bolts." 

As they walked through the gates of Whiterun, there were pair of Redguards arguing with one of the guards, who was apparently throwing them out of town. As they were leaving, one of them stopped to address her. 

"You there," said the man. "We're looking for someone who may be in Whiterun, and willing to pay for information." 

"Who are you looking for?" Keolah asked. 

"A Redguard woman. She's probably not using her real name." 

"So, what, do you want me to accost every Redguard woman in Skyrim on the offhand chance that she might be the one you're looking for?" Keolah said, rolling her eyes. 

"No, just the ones in Whiterun," the man said. "We can get the rest of Skyrim ourselves. If you learn anything, you can find us in Rorikstead." 

Keolah snorted softly. "If I happen to run across the one you're looking for, I'll think about it." 

More likely, she thought, she'd warn the woman about them, because they annoyed her. 

"There's my house," she said to Marcurio as they passed by Breezehome. "You can go drop the stuff you're carrying there. I need to go see the steward real quick. I'll be right back." 

Marcurio grunted. "Good. These things are heavy." 

She headed up to the keep and forked over entirely too many septims to the steward for home upgrades, then made her way back home again. It was dark by the time she located first the keep and then her house, having spent more time getting lost in town than she'd spent coming down the mountain. 

When she walked into Breezehome, she found Marcurio and Lydia huddled around the firepit. The place looked cleaner than it had before, but the new furnishings the steward promised hadn't materialized yet. 

"Hey, I just paid a lot of money for renovations here!" Keolah said, looking around and pouting. 

"You _just_ went up there and paid for them," Marcurio said. "You expect them to be done immediately?" 

Keolah grumbled. "I never let reality get in the way of my complaints." She sat down on the floor with them. "What's for dinner?" 

"Roast mountain goat, my thane," Lydia said. 

"From all the target practice you were doing on the way up that mountain," Marcurio added. "And you didn't mention you were a thane!" 

"I forgot," she said. 

Lydia muttered under her breath, "I can believe that." 


	12. Mead, Serious Business

Keolah woke the next morning, stretched and yawned, went down to get some breakfast, and asked, "What was I supposed to be doing today?" 

"You were going to meet someone in the inn for a mission for Maven Black-Briar," Marcurio replied. 

"You also haven't told the Companions yet that you cleared out those bandits for them," Lydia added. 

"And the Greybeards wanted--" Marcurio began. 

Keolah held up a hand to stop him. "That's enough on my plate for the moment, I think. The Greybeards can wait." She finished up the leftover goat roast and rose to her feet. "Let's head for the inn." 

She hardly stepped outside of her house before a courier ran up to her and said, "I have a letter for you from the jarl. Looks important. Bye!" He ran off without another word of explanation. 

Before she had a chance to even look at the letter, a couple of strangely dressed men came up and accosted her. "You! You're the one they call the Dragonborn?" one asked, while the other started trying to incinerate her with magic. 

"I'd love to stay and chat, but I'm not just going to stand here and talk to you while your friend is trying to kill me," Keolah replied, raising her hands to channel fire at them. 

"Kill the False Dragonborn!" yelled the crazy cultist. 

Magical fire seared the air as Keolah and Marcurio returned the cultists' assault in kind. They were dangerous adversaries, and Keolah brought out healing potions to keep herself from being killed under their onslaught, but eventually they went down, and not a moment too soon as Keolah was out of magicka. Panting a little, she went over to loot their corpses. 

"What was that all about?" Marcurio wondered. 

"I have no idea," Keolah said, shrugging and ignoring the message she found on one of the bodies. "Let's head for the inn. We've got more pressing things to do." 

"More pressing than people attempting to kill you, my thane?" Lydia said. 

"I'll get around to them." She tucked the papers into her pack to forget about them until later without even reading them. 

"You again!" a guard said, running up to them. "Weren't you told last time not to set anything on fire?" 

Keolah glanced about to notice that much of the district was now smoldering. "This was totally not my fault." 

"Then whose fault was it?" the guard demanded. "Some mad cultists trying to frame you for arson?" 

"No, they were trying to kill me," Keolah replied, poking her toe at one of the corpses. 

"I don't see what a naked, charred body is going to tell me, aside from the fact that you killed someone," the guard said. 

"My thane speaks the truth," Lydia said. "These two men attacked us without provocation." 

"Of course you would defend her," the guard said. "You're her housecarl." 

"Um..." Keolah said. "Can I just say that I'm the Dragonborn, and thane of Whiterun, and I wouldn't go killing people in the streets without good reason? And I certainly wouldn't be trying to burn down my own home." She gestured over to Breezehome, where Marcurio was using ice magic to put out the fire. 

"Fine, I'll let you go this time," the guard said. "But be warned that the jarl's mercy only goes so far, and if things like this keep happening, it's off to the dungeons with you. Again." The guard walked off. 

"Can we head for the inn now?" Keolah said. 

"Alright, your house isn't going to burn down now," Marcurio said, although it looked like it was half frozen instead now. 

With that taken care of, Keolah strode off confidently in the wrong direction, to which Lydia gently cleared her throat and pointed the right way. 

Along the way, she passed a Redguard woman, and said, "Hello. Just a heads up, but there were a couple of jerks looking for a Redguard woman, and got thrown out of town." 

"I'm sure it wasn't me they were looking for," the woman said, then added unenthusiastically, "Oh, you're the one who found that sword my husband was looking for, aren't you. He still hasn't shut up about it." 

"You're welcome," Keolah said brightly, and continued on. 

Once in the inn, she looked around to try to find the one Maven had sent her to talk to, frowning as she didn't see anyone matching the description she'd been given. A glance into the kitchen revealed another Redguard woman, so she went in there to warn her as well. 

"Pardon me," Keolah said. "There were a couple of men looking for a Redguard woman yesterday. And I--" 

"Oh no, they've found me!" the woman said. 

"--and I would not guess that it was actually you they were looking for until you said that," Keolah said. 

The Redguard pulled out a knife. "So, are you working for them? You think you can take me?" 

Keolah stared at the little knife for a moment before laughing out loud. "Ma'am, I just killed a pair of powerful mage cultists out in the streets. If I wanted you dead, you'd be a pile of ash already." 

"I mean it, I'll cut you in half!" the Redguard said. 

"Will you put that down already before you hurt yourself?" Keolah said. "I just wanted to warn you!" 

"Oh," the woman said, putting the knife down. "Well, in that case, I need your help." 

"Who doesn't?" Keolah replied. "Alright, so you want me to go kill them? I can do that." 

"I'm not the person Whiterun thinks I am," the Redguard began. 

Keolah waved her hand. "I don't care about any of that. Just tell me who to kill and where to find them." 

"Their leader is a man named Kematu. Kill him and the rest will scatter. I don't dare show my face..." 

Keolah peered at her. "Then why are you working at an inn? You're not even hiding all that well." 

"Never mind that!" the Redguard said. "One of their men was arrested trying to sneak into the city. You can find him in the Dragonsreach dungeon. You might be able to get him to tell you where Kematu is." 

"Right, okay," Keolah said. 

"Can't a man drink in peace?" said an Imperial man in the back of the kitchen, wearing a vest. 

"Oh!" Keolah said. "Are you Mary MacMallus?" 

"Mallus Maccius," the man corrected her. 

"I was close. Maven sent me." 

"Alright, I'm going to keep this short," Mallus said, and then proceeded to go on at length about some overly complicated plan that Keolah wasn't really paying attention to, involving killing pests and poisoning the mead. 

"So," Keolah said, yawning. "You want me to burn down the meadery?" 

"No!" Mallus snapped. " _Don't_ burn down the meadery!" 

"No fire spells, then?" Keolah said. 

"Kill the pests in there," Mallus said. " _No_ fire spells. Or lightning spells, for that matter." 

"I don't know any ice spells." 

"Just figure something out, and _don't_ burn down the meadery. Am I clear on that? No burning down the meadery!" 

"You know, the way people keep warning me about not burning things down, you'd think I'm a walking disaster area," Keolah commented. 

"No comment," Lydia said quietly, and Marcurio snickered. 

They headed out of the kitchen. The bard in the common room was singing, "Down with Ulfric, the killer of kings," and Keolah gave him a rude gesture on the way out the door. 

The next stop was the Companions' mead-hall. "Hi!" Keolah said cheerfully to the first person she saw inside. "We killed those bandits! Well, I don't mean we as in me and the two people with me, but me and one of the people with me and one guy who isn't here, but we still killed them." 

"I expected no less from you," the Companion said. 

"Well, you might have expected me to burn down their tower, too," Keolah said. "However, it was made of stone." 

"Skjor wanted to talk to you before you do anything else," said the man. 

"Oh," Keolah said. "Which one was Skjor again?" 

The man pointed silently to another Nord sitting at the large table, and Keolah went over to him. 

"Ah, there you are," Skjor said. "I have a mission for you. We've heard rumor of the location of a fragment of Wuuthrad--" 

"Wuuthrad?" Keolah repeated. 

"The legendary weapon of Ysgramor," Skjor explained. "A mighty battle-axe..." 

"Wait a minute," Keolah said. "This great hero wielded an axe named _Wuuthrad_? Seriously?" 

"Yes..." Skjor said. 

Stifling laughter, Keolah put her hands to her face and said, "Alright, alright. Let me guess, you want me to go and retrieve this piece of _Wuuthrad_ , am I right?" 

"Exactly," Skjor said. "Farkas will go along with you for this mission." 

"Which one was Farkas again?" Keolah asked. 

"The man you just spoke with," Skjor said flatly. 

"Oh, right," Keolah said. She turned around and glanced about, but there was no sign of him. "Where'd he wander off to?" 

After a bit of searching, she found him on the mead-hall's back porch. "Are you ready, Shield-Sister?" Farkas asked. 

"I don't use a shield," Keolah replied. 

"It's just an expression," Farkas said. 

"Anyway, can we do this tomorrow?" Keolah asked. "I have some things to take care of today." 

"What could be more important than this?" Farkas wondered. 

"I'm going to burn down the meadery," Keolah replied. 

"I believe he said _not_ to burn down the meadery," Marcurio said. 

"Are you sure?" Keolah asked. 

"He distinctly warned you not to burn down the meadery, my thane," Lydia added. 

"Oh," Keolah said. "Well, either way, I have things to do today. I'll take care of this tomorrow, promise." 

"Mead is more important than finding a piece of Wuuthrad?" Farkas said. 

"No, but fences are useful!" Keolah said cheerfully, then skipped off without another word, Marcurio and Lydia following behind her. 

"I'm hoping that you mean the wall sort of fences, and not that you've taken up a life of crime in the meantime, my thane," Lydia murmured. 

"I joined the Thieves Guild!" Keolah said. "Check out this new armor they gave me just for signing up! It's very comfortable." 

A couple of guards they were passing by gave her a long look. 

"Anyway, let's stop by the keep first," Keolah said, turning to head that way. 

"You're actually going the right direction this time," Marcurio said. 

"Well, yeah, it's right there," Keolah said. "Stairs go up to important places, because important people like to be in tall places so they can lord over everyone else." 

"Your logic is impeccable, my thane," Lydia said dryly. 

Inside the keep, she headed over to the wizard's laboratory. "What can I do for you?" Farengar asked. "Interested in books or enchanting supplies?" 

"Still trying to get more money out of me?" Keolah said. "I was just wondering if you had any ice spells for sale. _Nothing more_." 

"Certainly," he replied. "Here's a tome of Frostbite. I also have Ice Spike, and--" 

She snatched up the Frostbite book. "That's all." She handed over the septims for it. "Nothing else, no soul gems, no staves, no fancy robes, nothing." 

"Alright, alright," Farengar said. 

"It is very important that I don't burn down the meadery, so I must learn to cast spells that don't burn things down," Keolah said, opening up the book and skimming through it on the way to the dungeon. 

"Keolah!" the jarl yelled at her as she walked by. "Have you been burning down my hold again?" 

"Wasn't my fault!" she yelled back, then glanced over her shoulder to Lydia. "Could you explain to him what happened while we take care of this?" 

"Yes, my thane," Lydia said. 

Down in the dungeons, one of the guards looked at her and said, "Oh, it's you again." 

"Are you holding a Redguard down here?" Keolah asked. 

"Last cell on the left," the guard said lazily, then went back to his patrol. 

Keolah went over to the cell in question and said, "Hi! I'm told you can point me to your leader, what was his name, Tomatu, Potatu, something like that." 

"Kematu," Marcurio helpfully supplied. 

"Right, that," Keolah said. 

"If you know that name, then you should know that to meet him would lead only to your death," the Redguard said. 

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard that before," Keolah said. "Let me worry about that." 

"Well, if you want the information, you'll have to get me out of prison. My fine is one hundred septims." 

"If I pay your fine, I want you to come and help me," Keolah replied. 

"No way, I'm not getting myself killed," the Redguard protested. 

"Not for Kematu," Keolah said, waving her hand. "I'm not going after him just yet. I meant come with me and carry loot for me, not fight." 

"What kind of loot are we going to find in a meadery?" Marcurio asked. 

"Mead?" Keolah said with a shrug. 

"You want me to... carry mead for you?" the Redguard said in confusion. 

"Yep!" Keolah said. 

"Well, fine, if you get me out of here, I'll help you carry mead, then. But nothing dangerous!" 

"Excuse me, guard!" Keolah said, turning toward one of the guards. "I'd like to pay this man's fine." She handed over the money, then looked back toward the Redguard. "Now, tell me what I want to know." 

"Alright," the Redguard said. "Kematu's in a cave west of town." 

Keolah shoved her map at him through the bars. "Mark it or I'll never find the place." 

"Sure, right." He marked the location and passed it back. "You know they'll kill you if you go there." 

"You know I killed a dragon, right?" Keolah said. "More than one of them, in fact? Anyway. Guard, can you let this man out now? I've paid his fine and need him to haul mead for me." 

"Oh, I seem to have lost my keys," the guard said. 

"Well, if you're not going to give me my prisoner, then, can you refund the fine?" 

"Hey, you can't do this!" the Redguard shouted. "We had a deal!" 

"Sorry, I don't actually care about you," Keolah said. "In fact, I don't even know your name." 

"My name is Hasell!" the Redguard said. 

"Then you're too much of a hassle to try to get free," Keolah said. "Forget the money, I don't care anymore. Bye." She waved and headed for the stairs out of the dungeon. 

"Curse you!" he yelled as she walked away. "Let me out of here already!" 

Lydia met them back in the great hall of the keep, and said, "Did you get the information you came for, my thane?" 

"Yep," Keolah said. "Now let's go burn down the meadery." 

" _Not_ burn down the meadery," Marcurio said. "Oh, what do I care, anyway." 

"You did pick up that ice spell for the purpose of avoiding burning anything down, did you not, my thane?" Lydia asked. 

"Yeah, yeah," Keolah said. 

They headed out of the city and down the road to the Honningbrew Meadery. 

"This was a productive trip," Keolah said as they headed inside. "I caught six butterflies!" 

"I've got problems!" said the Nord inside the meadery. 

"Well, admitting you have a problem is the first step," Keolah said. 

"I don't suppose you'd be willing to lend a hand here?" the man said. 

"I could burn down the meadery," Keolah offered. "That would help, wouldn't it?" 

"No!" the Nord protested, gesturing at some dead giant rodents on the floor. "Look, I'll pay you well if you can kill all the skeevers and poison their nest. _Without_ burning anything down!" 

"Sure thing," Keolah said. 

The man handed her a key to the basement and some poison, and Keolah headed into the back room with her companions. 

"Alright, everyone grab as much mead as you can carry," Keolah said. 

"Wouldn't it be better to do that afterward?" Marcurio said. 

"No, afterward we'll probably be running away," Keolah said, handing a number of bottles to Lydia. 

"I am sworn to carry your burdens," Lydia said with a dejected sigh. 

They headed down into the basement. Skeevers infested the place, chittering and biting at her legs, even jumping up into her face. Keolah tried out her new Frostbite spell, and soon was surrounded in a circle of ice crystals. 

"That was less than impressive," Keolah muttered. "Ice spells suck. Bah, nothing's going to burn down here, and it's all stone anyway, _and_ we're heading into a cave from the looks of things." 

"This can't end well," Marcurio commented. 

Further down the tunnel, they came upon a cave full of giant spiders who had apparently been feeding on the skeevers. Keolah and Marcurio incinerated them while Lydia chopped off the legs of any that got too close. Once they were all dead, Keolah promptly became distracted with collecting some brightly glowing green mushrooms along the wall. 

"Bah, I can't reach those up there!" Keolah said. "Lydia, could you lift me up?" 

"Yes, my thane." Lydia sighed and reluctantly lifted Keolah on her shoulders so that she could harvest the mushrooms that were closer to the ceiling, clearly very embarrassed about being asked to do so. 

They moved on soon enough, and Keolah, striding in front, stepped into a bear trap down the next tunnel. "Ow!" she said, continuing on as she healed the injury, then proceeded to step into another bear trap. "Ow! Ow! Alright, I'm going to stop walking into traps now," she said, turning a corner, and a spiked ball slammed into her chest. 

Further on, a skeever jumped out at her, and Keolah panicked and accidentally set Marcurio on fire. 

"Hey, watch it!" Marcurio protested. 

"Sorry," Keolah said. 

There were more skeevers ahead, and as lightning and ice flew through the air, at first Keolah thought it was Marcurio casting until she realized there was another man down here with them. A large ice crystal impaled her, and she said, "Ow! I take back what I said about ice magic sucking!" She hurriedly drank down a healing potion. 

Their adversary was a bald man with no shirt on and a wild look in his eyes, throwing around painful spells like, well, _her_. Time to put a stop to that. 

" _FUS-RO!_ " Keolah shouted. The madman staggered back, and she took the opportunity to finish him off with another burst of flames. 

Panting, she quickly healed her wounds and looked to Marcurio and Lydia to make sure they were alright before grabbing any loot she could find from the area. 

"Um... Keolah?" Marcurio said. "We might want to be moving on. Quickly." He pointed upward. 

A cloud of dust fell from the ceiling, and Keolah coughed and stumbled as the cave shook. "What, an earthquake?" 

"I do not believe this cavern is very stable," Lydia commented. 

"Right, running away now," Keolah said, making for the far tunnel and stumbling around in the dark for a moment before remembering she could cast a light spell. 

They ran out into another basement at the far end of the tunnel, and Keolah didn't care to stop there, running up the stairs and not content until she saw sunlight. The door to the boiler room was locked, and she panicked for a moment, about to try to burn it down, when Lydia grabbed the key hanging next to it and handed it to her. The three of them rushed outside, and only then paused to look back to see that the building was not collapsing behind them. 

"Phew, that was a close call," Keolah said. "I thought the whole cave was going to come down on top of our heads." 

She went back into the boiler room to see about putting in that poison. A set of stairs led up to a catwalk above the vats of booze. 

"This seems wrong," Lydia commented. 

"Meh, alcohol is already poison anyway," Keolah said with a shrug. "I'm sure this won't make it taste any worse." 

As she leaned over to poison the mead, Keolah slipped and fell into the vat with a splash. She flailed about, sloshing mead all over the place as Lydia and Marcurio attempted to pull her out. Fortunately, there wasn't a fire burning underneath this vat, unlike the other ones. 

"What is going on here?" asked a man in a guard uniform, coming into the room followed closely by the Nord who ran the meadery and Mallus Maccius. 

"I _didn't_ burn down the meadery!" Keolah said, finally getting out of the vat and tumbling to the floor with a soggy thump. 

"I can see that," the guard captain said. "But what are you doing here?" 

"Oh, I was hired to kill some skeevers. And frostbite spiders. And a spellcasting lunatic. You didn't mention the lunatic." She cast an accusing glare at both the owner and Mallus. 

"Skeevers?" the captain said, looking accusingly at the owner. "You assured me this place was clean!" 

"Well, um..." the Nord said, shifting about and glaring back at Keolah. 

"And there are no safety rails on those catwalks!" Keolah said. "Someone could slip and fall in, like I just did!" 

The ground suddenly shifted beneath their feet, and a rumbling sound echoed behind the meadery. 

"Also, the place is built on some rather unstable ground," Keolah added. "Those caves nearly came down on top of me when I was clearing out the pests!" 

"I'll say that last one was your fault somehow," the guard captain said. "However, the rest was clearly not your doing. Sabjorn, you are in violation of health and safety regulations and are under arrest." He dragged the owner off to the dungeon. 

"By the Eight, what do you think you were doing?" Mallus said to Keolah once they were gone. 

"I didn't burn down the meadery," Keolah said, trying to shake out some of the mead dripping from her. 

"For your sake, you'd better hope that extensive repairs aren't needed here," Mallus said. 

"I'm sure it'll be fine," Keolah said. "Now, do you mind if I go raid his office, too?" 

"Maven wanted you to look into what he was doing behind the scenes, I'll imagine," Mallus said, passing her a key. 

"No, I just wanted to check if there was more loot in there, but I suppose I should do that, too," Keolah said. 

Fortunately for Mallus, whatever might have collapsed wasn't directly under the meadery, and the place was still more or less intact. Keolah went back over to the main building of the meadery and spent entirely too long wandering around looking for the stairs, before finally going up and grabbing everything of value from the office, along with a note that she didn't bother to read. There was another door inside the office that was locked and the key she'd been given didn't work, and her attempts at picking it left her grunting in frustration. 

"This door's too hard," she said. "I'll just burn it down." She raised her hands and, before anyone could stop her, blasted the door apart with a sustained burst of flames. 

"So, are we burning down the meadery after all?" Marcurio wondered as she quickly grabbed some silver bars and anything else that looked interesting from the room. 

"What are you doing!?" cried Mallus from the doorway. "Put it out! Put it out!" 

"Oh," Keolah said. "Right." She cast Frostbite at the smoldering wood and stopped the fire from spreading. 

Mallus breathed a sigh of relief. "Just... Just get out of here already, before you do anything else!" 

"You're welcome!" Keolah said. She always loved the satisfaction from a job well done. The loot didn't hurt either, of course. However, she was going to need to take a dip in a river or something to get the mead off of her. 


	13. Cute and Fluffy

"So, what were you planning to do with all this mead?" Marcurio wondered. 

Renovations bad been done to Breezehome while they were out, and the place was now laden with comfortable furniture, all of which was now covered with bottles and bottles of mead. There were bottles on the bookshelves, bottles on the tables, bottles on the cupboards, bottles on the chairs, bottles on the floor in the corners. 

"I have no idea," Keolah admitted. "Although I'd imagine that the value on Honningbrew Mead will go up if it's no longer being produced. So I'll just keep it around until the price goes up!" 

"If you say so," Marcurio said dubiously, shrugging as they stepped outside. 

Laying in the streets outside Breezehome, a fresh body was laying. Keolah blinked and went over to rifle through the man's pockets for spare change before asking a nearby guard what had happened. 

"Vampires," the guard spat in disgust. "This one attacked last night. Fortunately we were able to put him down, and no one was hurt. This time, at least." 

"Hmm," Keolah said thoughtfully, turning back to the body. "Vampire dust is useful in alchemy..." She went to collect some from the corpse before moving on down the street casually, although as she walked, she thought aloud, "Why do vampire corpses get dusty but don't actually turn to dust?" 

Marcurio looked at her strangely but said nothing as she finished up and moved on. 

In the park outside the Companions' mead-hall, a young human girl came up to them and said, "Pardon me, sir, ladies, but could you spare a coin, maybe?" 

"Huh?" Keolah said, blinking and looking down at her in surprise, not having noticed her until then. "Oh. Hello there, little one. Aren't you the cutest little thing? Well, alright, maybe not the cutest, a young Khajiit would be cuter, of course, but you're still pretty cute." 

"Thanks. I think. My name's Lucia," the girl introduced herself. "Not many others have been nice to me, since Mama died..." 

"And I'm Keolah. So why are you begging? You have no parents anymore? You don't have anywhere else to stay?" 

Lucia shook her head. "Brenuin told me to beg, and I've been getting by, I suppose..." 

"Who's Brenuin?" Keolah wondered. 

"The, er, town drunk, my thane," Lydia said. 

"Oh, was that the guy I stole a bunch of booze for that one time?" 

Lydia sighed. "I have a feeling that you will be a bad influence upon children, my thane." 

"Well, if you don't have anywhere else to go, Lucia, you can stay at my place!" Keolah suggested. 

"Really?" Lucia said. "You'd... adopt me?" 

"Sure, why not?" 

"Are you certain that this is a good idea, my thane?" Lydia asked quietly. 

"Would you prefer she just sleep on the streets?" Keolah said. "There are vampires attacking out here! It's not safe!" She looked back at Lucia and added with a gesture, "Besides, how can you refuse those eyes? _Those eyes!_ " 

"You have a place for me to stay?" Lucia said brightly, eyes widening with hope. 

"There are only two beds in the house," Lydia said. 

"I slept in the bedroll last night," Marcurio added. 

"At least they did get the beds in!" Keolah said. 

"A bedroll is hardly appropriate for a child, my thane," Lydia said. 

"Well, she can have your bed, then," Keolah said. 

Lydia sighed again and put her hand to her forehead. "You could have the alchemy room converted into another bedroom." 

"But... alchemy lab!" Keolah protested. 

"You could always just go down the street to Arcadia's Cauldron to do your... alchemical experiments, my thane." 

"I suppose..." Keolah said. "At least until she kicks me out, at any rate. Oh, well, whatever. Lydia, why don't you show Lucia here to her new home, and I'll go make a stop by the keep to make the arrangements? We can meet back here afterward for the quest." 

"Yay!" Lucia said, clapping her hands together. "Thanks, Mama! I'll be the best daughter ever!" 

"Why do I have this sudden sense of impending doom?" Marcurio muttered. 

Once she'd met with the steward and forked over some more septims, Keolah returned to the park, grumbling all the while about how he kept wringing more money out of her. 

"Lucia is all settled into her new home, my thane," Lydia said. "I told her not to drink the mead." 

"Good, good," Keolah said absently, heading over toward the big building near the park where the Companions lived. Jorrvaskr. She could never remember the name of that place. She grabbed a boiled creme treat from the big table full of food and asked with a mouthful, "Where's Farkas?" 

The woman with the war paint absently jerked her thumb at the back door leading out onto the patio and training area, so Keolah went outside. 

"There you are," Farkas said. 

"I said I'd be here," Keolah replied. 

"Are you ready to go now?" 

"Yep!" Keolah said brightly. 

Farkas looked toward Lydia and Marcurio. "They can't come, you know. Companions only." 

"Aww," Keolah said. "But they can carry more loot!" 

"I'm not a pack mule," Marcurio protested. "And what about what the Greybeards wanted you to do?" 

"It can wait!" Keolah said. "I don't see how some stupid horn is relevant anyway. Also, I doubt they can pay me. Although, they might teach me new Shouts... I guess I'll get around to it eventually." 

"I suppose it's likely that the Greybeards just gave you that mission in order to get you go to away," Marcurio commented. 

"I suppose you guys can wait at Breezehome for me to come back, then, while me and Farkas handle this one," Keolah said. 

"As you wish, my thane," Lydia said, heading off with Marcurio. 

"So, Farkas, where exactly are we going again?" Keolah asked. 

"It's a place called Dustman's Cairn," Farkas said. "An old Nord tomb. We should be careful." 

"Right, right," Keolah said. "Can you just mark it on my map real quick, just in case? I don't want to get lost if you get killed." 

Farkas obligingly marked the location on her map for her, and said, "I was more worried about _you_ getting hurt or killed." 

"Oh, don't worry about me," Keolah assured him. "Failing all else, I'll just hide behind you! What were we looking for again, anyway? The Axe of Woohoo, was it?" 

"Wuuthrad," Farkas said. "The great hero Ysgramor used it to kill all the elves in Skyrim. Well, not all of them, I guess, some of them are still here." 

"Killing elves, huh?" Keolah said. "I can understand that, I suppose. I hate a lot of elves myself, and I am one! Especially the Thalmor. They always rubbed me the wrong way. I could hardly get away from them fast enough, and I'm still running into them here on the other side of Tamriel. Anyway, let's be off, shall we?" 

Farkas looked at her dubiously for a moment more, before heading for the city gates. As they headed out of the city and toward the road, Keolah spotted a commotion ahead and ran up to see what was going on, but it was over by the time she got there. The body of a horse and a pair of vicious-looking black dogs lay on the ground near the stables. 

"What happened here?" Keolah wondered. 

"Death hounds," a guard explained. "Vampires' pets. Nasty things." 

"Oh," Keolah said. "Poor horse. Someone really ought to do something about this vampire problem." 

"I hear they've started up the Dawnguard again," the guard said. "Vampire hunters. I might join up with them myself." 

"Well, good luck with that!" Keolah said, waving and heading off down the road. 

As they approached the western watchtower, Keolah was attempting to catch a blue butterfly when a shadow passed overhead and a roar split the air. 

"Oh, Talos, it's another dragon," Keolah muttered, shooting lightning bolts as the guards at the tower fired their bows at the creature. 

The dragon had also apparently angered a giant, who was trying to hit it with an enormous club like a small tree. Keolah had no idea how the giant had gotten here, but was grateful for the momentary assistance. At least, until the dragon took off again and the giant decided to go after her instead. Keolah eeped and ran away from the giant. Shaking the ground, the dragon landed in front of her, and she circled around it, leading the giant along until the dragon's flame made it decide that the flying lizard was a greater threat than her. 

Putting some distance between herself and the dragon, Keolah continued to hurl lightning bolts at it. Arrows streaked through the air as well, so Farkas and at least one of the guards still alive were helping too. Finally, the dragon went down, leaving her with just one very angry and slightly singed giant. She hardly had a chance to recover from the feeling of absorbing the dragon's soul before the giant was upon her. 

Keolah ran toward the tower, almost tripping over the corpses of two guards, throwing spells at the giant as she went and trying to stay out of reach of that club. Where were the rest of the guards? Where was Farkas? She was getting low on energy here! Oh, wait, she was an Altmer, she could regenerate magicka. Focusing her power to restore her energy, she continued to run around in circles and cast spells at the giant, until Farkas ran up and finished it off. 

Panting, Keolah said, "I totally had him. But you could have helped a bit sooner." 

"Sorry," Farkas said. "I was still shooting." 

"Well, that's alright, then," Keolah said. "Let's collect this stuff and move on, then. You'll have to carry the dragon bones. If you'd let Lydia come along, she could have done it instead." 

"I can carry them, no problem," Farkas said, going over to pick up some bones from the dragon's corpse. 

The remainder of the trip was quiet aside from Keolah making target practice of the local wildlife, and the two of them headed down into the old tomb. And from the looks of things, someone else had been here recently. 

They made their way through the crypt, killing draugr along the way, Keolah accidentally setting Farkas on fire. "Sorry!" Keolah said, healing him quickly. "Stupid dead things." 

They came to a large room with the way forward blocked by a gate. There was a lever in an alcove off to the side, so Keolah went over and pulled it. Another gate slammed shut in front of the alcove, trapping her in. 

"Who designed this thing?" Keolah complained. "Stupid ancient Nords!" 

Farkas chuckled softly and said, "I'll find a way to open this. You just hold on." 

As he said that, several very definitely not dead figures wielding shiny swords strode into the room and surrounded him. "We knew you'd come here, dog. It's time to put you down!" 

"Hey, don't call someone a dog like it's supposed to be an insult," Keolah said. 

Farkas threw back his arms and let out a feral howl, and before her eyes he transformed. His body grew larger and a thick coat of fur covered him from muzzle to tail. 

"Oh, I guess you meant that literally," Keolah said. "That's okay then, I suppose. Well, aside from the fact that you want to kill my--my Shield-Brother!" 

Farkas ripped them apart with his claws, and they almost dropped before he could touch them in some cases. Actually, she was pretty sure at least one of them must have fainted before being mauled. Once they were down, he went out of view for a moment, and the gate opened. 

"I hope I didn't scare you," Farkas said. 

"Oh my _gods_ you are so _cute_!" she squeed in delight. 

Farkas blinked. "That wasn't the reaction I was expecting." 

"You're so cute and fluffy!" Keolah said. "Well, at least when you're a werewolf, anyway. You're still fuzzy as a big, ugly human, but a lot less cute." 

"Uh, thanks, I think," Farkas said. 

"Who were these bastards, anyway?" she asked, wasting no more time in going over to look over their bodies for valuables. 

"They're called the Silver Hand," Farkas said. "Werewolf hunters." 

"That would explain the silver swords," Keolah said. "I wonder what these would sell for..." 

After convincing Farkas to carry a small pile of swords as well, they moved on. Farkas had to remind her which way to go as she headed for the way they came in, having gotten turned around already. 

There were more of these Silver Hand goons up ahead, and in fighting them, Keolah accidentally set Farkas on fire again. "Sorry!" she cried, healing him. 

"If I'm going to carry your stuff, you really should stop setting me on fire," Farkas said. 

"Won't happen again. Promise." She spotted a helmet sitting on a nearby pedestal. "Ooh, treasure!" She picked it up, and something shifted underneath it. Arrows flew out from the wall behind her, one of them sticking in her shoulder. "Ow." 

"Be careful," Farkas warned. 

They made their way deeper into the tomb. By this point, Keolah had entirely forgotten just what they were in here for. It just seemed like she was _always_ fighting dead things, and bandits, and people who weren't much better than bandits. And giant spiders. And wolves. And deer. And rabbits. The rabbits were the worst. They were too quick. 

Tucked into a half-collapsed tunnel, Keolah found a chest that was difficult to pick. She thought she was getting better at this thievery thing, as she'd managed the last two chests, but this lock refused to budge and kept snapping her picks in seconds. 

"Ugh! I've had enough of this chest!" Keolah cried. She blasted it with fire, and the chest shattered, flaming splinters flying everywhere, completely destroying whatever might have been inside. "Oh. Well. That was pointless..." Keolah murmured as she healed herself up and checked on Farkas. 

Farkas stared at her incredulously, seeming unsure just what to say about that. 

"Oh well, let's go, there's probably more of those silver goons up ahead," Keolah said. 

Keolah went along burning every corpse in the niches along the walls just to make sure they didn't get up. As she was doing so, a voice up ahead said, "Is someone there?" Another Silver Hand appeared from around a corner with a greatsword. Keolah ran up to burn him instead, and got hit with the greatsword for her trouble. 

Stumbling back and hiding behind Farkas, Keolah said, "Ow! Even if I'm not a werewolf, that still _hurts!_ " She quickly healed herself, and then after seeing Farkas was getting hurt now, healed him up as well. 

They continued on after Farkas finished off that enemy. He didn't make any comment on her sifting through all the burial urns for loose change or treasure. She wasn't sure whether that was preferable to the friends who complained about her habits, or just boring. 

"We're getting awfully deep in. I wonder how much further this goes," Keolah commented, then stepped on a pressure plate that released a hail of projectiles at her. "Ow," she muttered, covering her face with her arms. 

More groups of Silver Hand hindered their passage forward, and the fighting was harrowing at times, but there was treasure to be found along the way. Next they passed through some natural caves with water running through, inhabited by skeevers and frostbite spiders. 

"Ugh, spiders," Farkas muttered. 

"Don't tell me you have no problem with killing any number of men, but you're scared of spiders?" 

"All the eyes..." 

"They burn nicely, though," Keolah said. "Not that that's saying much, of course. Most things burn nicely." 

She went over and checked behind the waterfall for treasure, but there didn't seem to be anything interesting hidden around this one. While she was doing that, she could hear Farkas having trouble with some draugr. Right, she should probably help him with that. She climbed up to burn the undead and heal him up again. 

"What were you doing?" Farkas wondered. 

"Looking for treasure!" Keolah said. "What else?" 

"You can look for treasure when there's nothing still moving," Farkas said. 

"Oh, that might be a good point..." 

They finally entered into a large chamber, the inner tomb Keolah guessed, but her eyes were drawn by the rune-covered wall at the far side of the room. Her vision swam, and one of the words was glowing in blue: _Yol_. As she ran her fingers across the symbols, she instantly knew in her soul that it meant "fire". 

With a broad grin, she turned around and shouted, " _YOL!_ " 

Her breath of fire struck the sarcophagus in front of her and knocked the lid loose, and a restless draugr crawled out, looking very annoyed. Keolah jumped back in surprise, and Farkas went over to bisect the creature. 

"Um... I meant to do that," Keolah said. 

"You aren't even fooling _me_ ," Farkas commented. 

"So is this what we were looking for?" Keolah wondered, picking up a fragment of metal from a stone slab. "Doesn't look like much..." She trailed off as sarcophagi around the room popped open and more draugr climbed out all around them. 

She started throwing fire bolts at them, incinerating several of them. When they cleared the first wave and she thought that hadn't been so bad, more popping sounds could be heard as another wave arrived. Farkas staggered and leaned against a wall, badly hurt, while Keolah ran back and forth around the chamber burning undead with magic and her new shout, and trying to avoid getting killed. 

"I think that's the last of them," she said, but the words were hardly out of her mouth before more draugr leapt out at them. "Oh, come on." 

She drank down a couple potions and tried to heal Farkas' wounds quickly, then ran and jumped around the room killing more draugr. How many of these things could there possibly be? 

"Alright, is _that_ it?" she said as the last one dropped. 

Pop, pop, pop. More draugr climbed out of the sarcophagi. 

"This is just getting ridiculous," Keolah commented. "Die already, dead things!" 

Fire rained down upon the room as she fought desperately. Eventually, she stumbled back to where Farkas was, panting and hurting as she fumbled around for another potion and almost dropped it onto the floor. 

"I think they stopped now," Farkas finally said after several long moments of silence. 

"Yeah..." Keolah agreed tentatively. "You know, I was going to say something witty here, but I'm just too tired to think of anything. Oh well, there's only one thing to do now." 

"Leave with what we came for?" Farkas asked. 

"Look around for more treasure!" Keolah exclaimed. 

"Right..." Farkas said. 

One of the sarcophagi that had opened led to a previously hidden passageway, and Keolah went into take a look around. At the end of it, there was a lever that, upon pulling it, caused a part of the stone to slide away and open a door leading into another chamber. 

"This is where we came in," Farkas observed. 

"Huh," Keolah said. "Why do all these old Nord tombs seem to have back doors? Could save a lot of trouble to find them beforehand and just go in through _them_. Then again, there was plenty of treasure to be found outside the central chamber, too. Ah, well, let's go." 

She was pretty exhausted by this point, and hoped for a nice, quiet trip back to Whiterun, followed by a warm meal and a good night's sleep. Fortunately, no dragons or giants attacked them on the way home. 

Behind the mead-hall, the senior Companions gathered into a circle to ceremoniously welcome Keolah into their ranks. 

"Brothers and sisters of the Circle," Kodlak said. "Today we welcome a new soul into our mortal fold. This woman has endured, has challenged, and has shown her valor. Who will speak for her?" 

Farkas bit his tongue hesitantly. 

"Farkas?" Kodlak queried. 

"Farkas?" Keolah wondered. 

"You set me on fire," Farkas said flatly. 

"It was an accident!" Keolah protested. 

"Twice," Farkas said. 

"I healed you up again afterward," Keolah said, pouting. 

Farkas sighed. "Fine. She's clumsy and reckless, but she has courage, and she means well." 

"Would you raise your shield in her defense?" Kodlak said. 

"I would stand at her back, because standing in front of her hurts," Farkas replied. 

"Would you raise your sword in her honor?" Kodlak went on. 

"It stands ready to strike down her foes, if she doesn't burn them up first." 

"And would you raise a mug in her name?" Kodlak asked. 

"I would need to drink down a whole keg after fighting by her side," Farkas said. 

Keolah was almost asleep on her feet by the time the initiation ceremony finished, but she woke right up again when she smelled the food and drink that was provided afterward. Did the Companions feast every day, she wondered? 

After she'd eaten her fill, Kodlak said to her, "Be sure to stop by Eorlund Gray-Mane up at the Skyforge for your weapon." 

"Do I need one?" Keolah wondered. 

"Are you a real warrior, or not?" Kodlak asked. 

"I never disputed that I'm not," Keolah replied. "I keep telling you, I'm a mage... I'd think that should be obvious by now." 

"Well, go get one anyway! We'll make a real warrior of you yet." 

"I suppose I could just sell it..." Keolah mused, then wished she hadn't said that aloud as Kodlak's glared at her. "Just kidding? Right, I'll go do that." Sheepishly she slunk off toward the Skyforge. 

Fortunately, it wasn't difficult to find the place, and she approached the Nord blacksmith who was diligently pounding away at a bit of hot metal. She patiently watched and waited until he was done with that before clearing her throat. 

"Need something, lass?" 

"Kodlak said you'd have a weapon for me," Keolah said. 

"Ah, you're a full Companion now, yes," Eorlund said. "What would you like?" 

"A staff," Keolah replied. 

Eorlund snorted. "I don't do staves here, girl." 

"A wand?" Keolah asked. 

"Now you're just being silly," Eorlund said. 

"Well, I'm a mage! What do you expect me to wield? I can hardly even _lift_ a warhammer, never mind swing it!" 

"Don't mages usually wear dresses?" Eorlund wondered, looking over her leather armor. 

"Robes, preferably," Keolah said. "Not just dresses. But I trip over this less." 

"How about I just give you a nice dagger?" Eorlund said. "Maybe you'll even stab something with it, and not just burn things with your fancy magic all the time." 

"Hmm, although come to think, I suppose that would be useful if I run out of magicka..." Keolah said, and shrugged. "Assuming I don't just stab _myself_ with it instead." 

Eorlund sighed heavily and pulled out a Skyforge steel dagger, and passed it over to her. "Here you go, lass. May the luck of the gods be upon you." 

"Thanks!" she said, attaching it to her belt, then going to head home wearily. It had been a long day. 

Back at Breezehome, she found Lydia reading to Lucia in the main room. "Mama!" Lucia said brightly. 

"Welcome home, my thane," Lydia said. "How did your quest go?" 

"Quite well," Keolah said. "Where's Marcurio?" 

"He got bored and wandered off," Lydia replied. "Although not before telling me all about the Goldenglow Incident." 

"I warrant capitalized Incidents now?" Keolah said. "Oh dear. Maybe I should just go to bed before I cause anymore of them for the day..." 

"Auntie Lydia says you're a poor example," Lucia said. 

"Yeah, I can't argue with that," Keolah said with a smirk. "Just don't do what I do, and you'll be good, 'kay?" 

"Then why do _you_ do it?" Lucia asked. 

"Sometimes by accident, sometimes by mistake, sometimes because I'm an idiot, sometimes because I just plain don't care," Keolah said. "Night now, little one." 

"But, it's the middle of the day!" Lucia protested. 

"Yeah, and I was apparently in that stupid old Nord tomb all night," Keolah said. "I'm dead on my feet. I'd like to kill the ancient Nords for their tomb design... but I already did that plenty." 

"Oh, well, in that case, good night, Mama!" 

"Stay out of trouble, you hear?" 


	14. In My Time of Greed

"Where are you going today, Mama?" Lucia asked at breakfast. 

"I'm not sure," Keolah said. "Lydia, do you know what I was supposed to be doing, anyway?" 

"Marcurio mentioned something about the Greybeards, my thane?" Lydia suggested. "Some sort of legendary lost horn?" 

"Ah, yes," Keolah said, pulling out her map and rolling it out on the table, almost knocking over Lydia's goblet in the process. "Hmm... I think it might have been _this_ marker? Maybe? I have no idea how to get there..." 

Lydia put her face in her hands and said, "Lucia, you be a good girl and stay safe, alright? We might be a while." 

Keolah headed out from Whiterun, Lydia following reluctantly behind her. They headed off to the west, down the same road Keolah had taken the previous day, to start off with. 

"Say," Keolah said as they came to an intersection. "I didn't notice that fort there before." 

"Fort Greymoor?" Lydia said. "That's been there for some time." 

"There's bandits in there, isn't there," Keolah said. "These old forts are always full of bandits, I'll bet." She sent a fire bolt flying toward a humanoid figure on the wall. 

Lydia sighed. "That's a dummy, my thane." 

"He's certainly stupid if he's standing around on the wall not even trying to dodge!" 

"I mean, they put those up to make it look like there are more of them..." Lydia tried to explain. 

Arrows flew down from the walls toward them. Whoever was here had clearly noticed them. Keolah charged in and set everything on fire, Lydia following behind with her bow. 

"Luckily for you," Lydia commented, "they _were_ bandits. I am certain that Jarl Balgruuf will be grateful for having a few less bandits in his hold." 

Once there wasn't anything shooting at them any longer, they returned to the road and moved on. "I wonder if I can get a bounty for that," Keolah wondered. 

"Considering you didn't take any that was posted and we only even killed the ones that were on the outside, and not their leader, I doubt it," Lydia said. 

"There was an inside?" Keolah said, stopping to turn back toward the fort. 

"Oh, look!" Lydia said, pointing. "Butterflies!" 

"Where? Oh!" Keolah said, chasing after them. Once she'd caught all three of them, she turned to Lydia and asked, "Which way were we going again?" 

"This way, my thane," Lydia said. 

They didn't get far before Keolah spotted a very tall figure standing on the road, and froze in her tracks. Crouching down, she whispered, "Is that a giant, or just a rather tall Nord?" 

"It's a giant," Lydia replied. 

"Let's not mess with him," Keolah said, going to cut away from the road and into the underbrush, giving the giant a wide berth. 

It didn't take long at all before Keolah had no idea where they were or where they were going. She crept along and climbed a rock overlooking a strange purple tree, surrounded by mammoths and more giants. She backed away quietly and put in a safe distance before speaking up. 

"That tree looked neat," Keolah whispered, "but I don't want to mess with those mammoths and giants right now." 

"A wise decision, my thane," Lydia said. 

"See, I'm capable of being wise." 

"I did not dispute that," Lydia said flatly. 

Doing their best to avoid giants and mammoths along the way, they continued on through the trackless wilderness. Fortunately, giants and mammoths were such large figures that even someone as near-sighted as Keolah could not fail to notice them. 

"A cave!" Keolah said over the burnt corpse of the bandit that had been guarding the entry, her hands still smoking a little from the spell. "I wonder what's inside." 

"Let me see that map again," Lydia asked, and Keolah handed it over. "Hmm. I think this might be the place marked as Swindler's Den. That _is_ the place you said the Greybeards wanted you to go, is it not?" 

"I think so," Keolah said. "Maybe? I don't know, but if it's on my map, _somebody_ wanted me to go in here and do something, so let's go in!" 

"As you say, my thane," Lydia said with a sigh, handing back the map as they headed inside. 

From up ahead, some bandits could be overheard talking. "I don't like those Alik'r being here." Whatever else he had to say was interrupted with a fire bolt to the face. 

"They mentioned something about the Alik'r?" Lydia said once this group of bandits was down. 

"I'm not even sure what that is," Keolah said. 

Lydia opened her mouth to try to explain, thought better of it, and just sighed and followed after Keolah, who didn't seem to care anyway. 

"Bandits," Keolah said, incinerating her way through a room full of enemies. "Bandits I can deal with. Leave the giants alone." 

"What about the dragons?" Lydia asked, putting an arrow into a bandit. 

"Pray to Talos," Keolah replied. With the room clear of hostiles, she went in to gather up any loot the bandits might have acquired. 

"No offense, my thane, but why does a high elf worship Talos?" Lydia asked. 

"Because, when the first dragon showed up, I prayed to Talos in desperation. And then the dragon died and I turned out to be the Dragonborn. If that's not a clear sign of divine intervention, I don't know what is." 

"As you say, my thane." 

With the bandits' gold and gems filling her pockets, Keolah made her way to the back of the cave. One of the tunnels along the way was partially flooded with knee-deep water. 

"Ugh," Keolah muttered. "My boots are getting waterlogged. My toes are going squelch-squelch-squelch..." There was a wooden ramp leading out of the water up ahead, and she gratefully went up it and took a sit, and pulled off her boots to dump the water out. 

"Excuse me," said a Redguard standing nearby that she hadn't noticed. "Who are you? I thought for a moment that you'd been coming to kill us..." 

"Huh?" Keolah said, looking up and blinking. "Oh. Are you Tomatu?" 

"Kematu," the Redguard man said. "I would speak with you, however. I would prefer that no more blood need be shed today." 

Keolah peered about the cave, and realized there were half a dozen Redguards with curved swords standing around that she'd failed to spot before. Lydia stood ready with her sword warily. 

"Talking sounds good," Keolah said uneasily. 

"Fear for your own life, or perhaps not all is as it appears?" Kematu said. "When I saw you, I expected that she'd hired an Altmer assassin to take us out. But you do not seem so." 

"I don't even know who you're talking about," Keolah said. 

"Is that so?" Kematu said. "Am I mistaken? Did you just stumble into our hideout by mistake, then, perhaps simply clearing out bandits for a bounty or a good deed? But no, that can't be, you knew my name. Sort of. Where have you heard it before?" 

"Oh, right. There was a Redguard woman who wanted me to kill somebody," Keolah said, shrugging. "I don't remember her name and she didn't explain why. Well, I didn't let her explain why." 

"So, are you in this only for coin, then?" the Redguard man said. 

"You know, when you put it like that, it makes me sound bad," Keolah said, pulling her boots back on again and standing up. "Why don't you just tell me what this is really about?" 

"Very well. The woman who sent you is wanted for treason, for betraying Hammerfell to the Aldmeri Dominion." 

Keolah's fists clenched and her expression darkened. 

"Now, are we to fight, then?" Kematu asked. 

"I'll kill her myself," Keolah muttered. 

"No," Kematu said, with a touch of surprise. "We want to bring her back for a trial and leave her fate to the judgment of those she wronged. You would not wish to be executed without a trial, would you?" 

Keolah took a deep breath and calmed herself deliberately, and let her hands relax. "The Empire nearly executed me at Helgen. Whether I deserved it or not." 

He gave a nod. "So it would appear that I was mistaken about you. You are not a typical high elf, it seems." 

Keolah snorted. "You think every Altmer supports the Thalmor and their reign? Even the ones in the Summerset Isle? My own former home was the first country to fall to the Thalmor. Don't think there aren't rebels there, too. I came to Skyrim to escape, and yet I keep running into Thalmor even here on the other side of Tamriel." 

"I thought you came to Skyrim because you got lost," Lydia put in. 

"Well, that too," Keolah admitted. "But when you're running away from something, you tend to care more about what you're getting away from than where you're going to." She paused. "Which would explain why I ran straight into an Imperial patrol when trying to cross the border, but never mind that." 

Kematu nodded. "The rebellion is alive and well in Hammerfell. We won't allow the Aldmeri Dominion to take our freedom from us." 

"Good on you," Keolah said. "Now, what do I need to do about this traitorous wench, if you don't want her dead?" 

"Use her trust in you to lure her out of the city. Meet me by the Whiterun stables and I can apprehend her to take her back for a trial." 

"Very well," Keolah said with a curt nod. "I'll do it. Lydia! We're heading back to Whiterun." 

"Shall I show you the way, my thane?" Lydia asked. 

"I'm sure I can find it myself," Keolah replied. 

Lydia sighed and turned to Kematu, and said, "Perhaps we should travel together at least as far as the stables? Safety in numbers? The woman you are searching for is holed up in the inn. She shouldn't be watching the road." 

"Are you afraid I'm going to get lost again?" Keolah asked Lydia. 

"No, my thane," Lydia replied. "I _know_ you'd get lost again." 

"Well... yeah maybe you have a point," Keolah admitted. 

Kematu blinked. "Yes, perhaps we should." 

Keolah, Lydia, and the half dozen Redguards made their way out of the cave and across the fields toward Whiterun. It was night by the time they arrived, and Keolah was certain that she definitely would have been wandering around all night otherwise. When they reached the stables, the Redguards positioned themselves out of view, and Keolah and Lydia headed into the city. 

The Bannered Mare inn was packed tonight, but Keolah ignored them and headed purposefully into the kitchen. Not seeing Saadia around, she headed upstairs to look around, and found her holed up apparently waiting for her. 

"I hope you have good news," Saadia asked. 

"Not at all," Keolah said, shaking her head and putting on a grim expression. "They're coming for you." 

"Oh no!" Saadia said. "You weren't able to defeat them? I thought they couldn't get into the city?" 

"They... um... they're climbing over the walls with grappling hooks!" Keolah said. "Right behind the inn, in fact! We need to go, right now! Out to the stables! You can steal a horse and run away... somewhere..." 

Saadia looked at her skeptically. "You know, you're a very bad liar. Did they buy you out? Whatever they offered you, I can pay more." 

"Oh, forget it," Keolah said, shaking her head. She lifted her hands, flaring with magic. "Alright, betrayer, end of the line. There's no escape now. I'm not doing this for the money. I don't care if they pay me a septim for turning you over to them. I'm doing this because I hate the Thalmor, I hate seeing what my own kind are capable of, and I hate people who would sell out their own people, and for what? Why did you do it? What did the Thalmor offer you? Gold? Was it worth it? Was it-- umph--" 

A punch in the gut cut off Keolah's monologue. Saadia took advantage of Keolah's momentary surprise to pull out a knife. Lydia was upon her in a moment, slamming her shield into the Redguard woman and knocking her off balance. 

"Ugh," Keolah muttered. "You know, I'd really like to kill you, and I'd like to think I'm not a very bloodthirsty person." 

"Not especially hesitant about it when it's necessary, though," Lydia put in. 

"However, lucky for you, Tomatu wants you alive," Keolah said. 

"You won't take me," Saadia said, climbing to her feet. 

"My thane," Lydia said. "Could you let me handle this and _not_ cast any fire spells in this wooden inn?" 

Keolah paused thoughtfully, and said, "Good point. Alright, Lydia, she's all yours." 

In short order, the housecarl subdued the Redguard woman and slung her unconscious body over her shoulder. They headed downstairs, and Keolah decided to slip out the side door in the kitchen rather than quite so blatantly haul the kidnapped cook through the common room in front of everyone. 

They met Kematu outside at the stables. Upon seeing Lydia lay the woman's prone body at his feet, he said, "What happened? You didn't kill her, did you?" 

"She's just unconscious," Lydia said. 

"She wouldn't come quietly," Keolah said. 

"My thane is a terrible liar," Lydia put in helpfully. 

"I prefer to think of it as being an honest person," Keolah said with a smirk. 

Kematu pointed at Saadia with a glowing hand, casting a spell to bind her with magic. Translucent bonds surrounded her body and held her firmly in place. "You could have at least just stunned her or something instead of giving her a concussion." 

"I don't know any spells that might do that," Keolah said. 

"At least my thane did not burn down the inn," Lydia said. 

"You know what?" Kematu said. "Just, never mind. Here's your share of the reward." He handed Keolah a pouch of coins. 

"Thanks!" Keolah said, and cheerfully trotted back into the city. 

She headed back over toward the Bannered Mare inn and walked up to the woman at the bar, who asked, "Can I get you something? Oh, wait, it's you again." 

"I just thought it would be polite to inform you that you're going to need a new cook," Keolah said. "What's-her-name got taken back to Hammerfell for trial for treason." 

The innkeeper stared at her for a long moment. "This is all your fault somehow, isn't it." 

"Be glad she didn't burn down your inn," Lydia said. 

"Yes, well, I'm quite grateful for that," said the innkeeper. 

"Good luck finding a new cook!" Keolah said, waved, and left the inn. "Let's go home." She paused thoughtfully and looked up at the sky, at the vibrant green auroras that were starting to come out in the night over Skyrim. "Home. Yeah, I guess that's not so bad." 

"It's not a bad place to live," Lydia said. 

"Yeah, I suppose," Keolah said. "We just need to kick out the Thalmor and it'll be perfect. Well, aside from being too blasted cold. But that's what fire magic is for." 

"As you say, my thane..." 


	15. Burnt to Rest

"In hindsight, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to leave a child alone in a house full of mead and then tell her not to drink it," Keolah mused. 

Lucia sat slumped in one of the chairs facing the hearth in Breezehome, giggling softly, with a half-empty bottle of mead dangling from her hand. 

"Perhaps not," Lydia agreed. 

Keolah sighed. "Alright. Lydia, you take care of this. I'm going to go sell all this mead." 

"As you say, my thane." 

Keolah gathered up all the bottles of mead in the house and hauled them outside. These were _heavy_ and she didn't want to go any further than she had to, so she just crossed the street and headed up to an establishment called the Drunken Huntsman. She wasn't sure whether they sold booze, or weapons, or both. Only Nords would find that combination to be a good idea. 

The Bosmer at the counter gave a strange look at all the mead she was carrying, and said, "What can I do for you today, my elven friend?" 

"Will you buy this mead?" Keolah said, showing him the bottles. 

"This is Honningbrew Mead?" the wood elf said. "But the meadery--" 

"--totally didn't burn down the other day," Keolah interrupted. 

The Bosmer blinked. "That wasn't what I was going to say... and that's an awfully suspiciously specific denial, you know. Lucky for you, I really don't care. Just try not to burn down _my_ establishment." 

"I totally didn't almost burn down your establishment the other day," Keolah said quickly. "And if I did, it was completely not my fault. There were these cultists, see--" 

The Bosmer held his hand up. "I think I've heard enough. I'll buy your mead, and please do not burn down my shop." 

"I'll certainly try not to," Keolah assured him. 

After completing the transaction, she went back home to get some sleep. Lydia could deal with the girl somehow. Keolah certainly didn't know what to do, and besides, wasn't that what housecarls were for, to do things you didn't want to do yourself? 

The next morning, after eating breakfast and telling Lucia not to get herself into too much trouble, Keolah set out from Whiterun again with Lydia at her heels. 

"Hopefully we won't run into anymore giants today," Keolah said. 

"It's not the giants I'm concerned about," Lydia muttered. 

"Did you say something, Lydia?" 

"Nothing, my thane," Lydia said lightly. 

"Where are we going, anyway?" Keolah asked. 

"I thought you knew," Lydia said, then shook her head. "Never mind, silly me. Didn't the Greybeards want you to do something?" 

"Oh, right, that," Keolah said. "Uh, I forgot where they wanted me to do it, though. Or exactly what they wanted, for that matter." 

Lydia sighed and said, "Here, let me see that map." She took it and peered over it. "You have a number of places marked on this map... Lucky for you, Marcurio was paying more attention and told me what you were supposed to be doing. The Greybeards want you to retrieve a legendary horn from some Nord ruins." 

"Which Nord ruins?" Keolah asked. "They're all over the place, and they're _all_ full of draugr!" 

"Perhaps you should start keeping a journal?" Lydia suggested, handing the map back. "When people ask you to do things, you can write down exactly what they wanted you to do, so that you don't forget?" 

"Hmm," Keolah said. "That might not be a terrible idea." 

They decided that Ustengrav seemed the most likely target. Heading off into the wilderness and harassing the local wildlife with firebolts, Keolah tried to avoid mammoths, and thankfully didn't see any giants. 

"Wasn't there supposed to be a road or a pass or something somewhere around here?" Keolah wondered. 

"Don't look at me," Lydia said, "You're the one with the map." 

"This is so not a road," Keolah said, trudging down the snowy mountain pass. "This is about the furthest thing from a road." 

"I would imagine that the furthest thing from a road would be a mountain, my thane," Lydia pointed out. 

The pass was opening up into what appeared to be some old, snow-covered ruins. "Say, is this the place we're looking for?" 

"I don't believe so, my thane," Lydia said. "I think the place marked was further--" 

"It's ruins in the general direction of where we were going," Keolah said. "It _must_ be the right place. Let's see if we can find a way in." 

Lydia sighed. "Yes, my thane. Let's go explore the old tomb that is obviously the right place." 

Keolah glanced up sharply at the sound of a roar echoing through the icy air. "Um. _After_ we kill the frost trolls." 

Fortunately, frost trolls burned well enough, although they stank a fair bit while doing so. After a short amount of searching, Keolah came upon a door leading down into the ruins, and headed inside. 

"There should be treasure in here, if nothing else," Keolah said. 

"As you say, my thane," Lydia said in a slightly strained voice. 

They went inside and wandered around for a bit, collecting some minor treasures, including a nice dwarven helmet for Lydia, before coming to a room with a particularly dangerous-looking draugr. Keolah held up her hand to pause. 

"It's a draugr dreadlord. Or deathlord. Or something like that," Keolah said quietly. 

"Dangerous, my thane?" 

Keolah nodded. "Let's just leave it for now. I'm pretty sure we're in the wrong place." 

"As you say, my thane," Lydia said. "Caution is wise." 

They turned around and headed toward the exit. Or at least, where Keolah thought the exit was. After getting mixed up and confused in the maze of corridors, which wasn't actually all that large, they wound up back in the room where they'd stopped. 

"Oh, there's the doomlord again," Keolah said. "Right, we're going the wrong way." 

She spun around and went back out again, wandered around some more, and ended up right back in the same place one more time. However, this time, when she peered closer, there wasn't any sign of the scary draugr. 

"Huh, where's the darklord?" Keolah wondered. 

"I don't see him," Lydia said, peering around the area. 

"Oh, well. Let's see what's in the chest." 

Without further hesitation and despite Lydia's attempts to warn her to be cautious, she scrambled forward and opened the chest, scooping up the treasure inside. Although there was no sign of the draugr in the area, there was a large circular opening in the center of the room, crisscrossed by wooden beams, leading down into another area. 

"Hmm, I wonder what's down there..." Keolah said, and jumped down from beam to beam to the ground below. 

" _FUS--_ " said an ominous voice nearby. 

Keolah spun around, coming face to face with the draugr lord. "Crap!" 

" _RO--_ " 

Raising both hands, Keolah slammed a small meteor of flame into his chest. The draugr staggered under the impact of the spell. After a few seconds, he recovered his bearings and hefted his enormous hammer, at which point Keolah hit him with another spell, and another. 

Her magicka wasn't going to hold out at this rate. The draugr was hardly hurt even after expending everything she had on it. In a panic, she drank down a potion and let off another spell, keeping it up as long as she could. She knew one misstep would be the end, so she couldn't let the draugr get the chance to do _anything_. Eventually, the draugr staggered, and went down, and she struck it with one last fire bolt to make sure it was going to stay dead. 

Panting, Keolah sunk to her knees and glanced in her pack. There was only one magicka potion left inside. And she'd completely forgotten that she could shout, too. 

"My thane, are you alright?" Lydia's voice called from above. 

"Yeah," Keolah replied as she caught her breath. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for not getting in the way." Not having to worry about incinerating Lydia by accident helped. 

"I will try to find another way around," Lydia said. 

"Why don't you just jump down here?" Keolah asked. "I'm certainly not getting back up there. Unless you've got a rope on you. Do you happen to have a rope, by chance?" 

"I do not." 

"Come to think, do they even sell rope in Whiterun?" Keolah wondered aloud. "Oh, never mind. There's probably more treasure down here, anyway. If you're not coming down, I'll just try to find a way out on my own then you can carry the loot out. Oh, just head back to the entrance and I'll meet up with you outside." 

After gathering up the loot, she opened up the only door in the room, which to her surprise just led straight to the outside, back to the snowy ruins. She wandered around gathering up treasure and looking for Lydia, but there wasn't any sign of her. Maybe she was at the other entrance? However, she couldn't manage to find the other entrance again, either. Just when she was about to give up in annoyance, and getting weighed down by loot, Lydia showed up from around a corner. 

"There you are!" Keolah said. "Here, I've got stuff for you to carry." 

Lydia sighed, her breath making a small cloud of fog in the frozen air. "Of course, my thane." 

"I'm surprised there wasn't one of those Word Walls in there," Keolah commented. "I want to learn more shouts." 

"Perhaps the Greybeards can teach you more," Lydia said. 

"Oh yeah, maybe," Keolah said. "We've still got a bit of daylight left. Let's see if we can make it to civilization before dark. I need to restock my potions. Or make some more." 

"We shouldn't be too far from Morthal," Lydia said. 

With surprisingly little incident, they made it to Morthal just as it was getting dark, and Keolah only incinerated two deer along the way. At least they wouldn't go hungry. As they were coming into town, a cluster of irate townspeople were standing around outside a large building. 

"We don't need wizards in our midst!" yelled one of them. 

"Hey!" Keolah protested. "I haven't even done anything yet! Well, here at least." Had rumors spread like wildfire of her tendencies? 

"Not you," the man said with a touch of exasperation. 

"Oh!" Keolah said. "Well, that's a relief. Carry on, then. Where's your town's inn?" 

"Over there," said the man, pointing toward another building. 

Keolah went over into the building apparently called the Moorside Inn. Passing an orc who fancied himself a bard, she went over to the Redguard woman at the bar. 

"Good to see visitors here," the innkeeper said. "We don't get many these days." 

"Why not?" Keolah wondered. 

"Because of the war, I'm sure. Nobody wants to travel anymore." 

"I'd think that people would want to travel _more_ because of the war," Keolah said. 

"Well, people also think that there's a curse on the town," the Redguard said. "It's because of that burned-down house. I'm sure you saw it on your way into town." 

"No, I didn't," Keolah said. 

"Mysterious circumstances, that," the innkeeper said. "The man said it was a hearth fire, but some whisper rumors that he set the fire himself, burning down his own house with his wife and child inside. Nobody can prove anything, of course." 

"That's nice," Keolah said apathetically. 

"The jarl would surely reward anyone that could get to the bottom of it," the innkeeper went on. 

Keolah's eyebrow twitched. Twitched again. "Right. I'm sure this won't be too difficult. Easy money." 

"The house belonged to a man named Hroggar," the innkeeper elaborated. "The day after the house burned down, he moved in with this woman, Alva. Not even an appropriate period of mourning!" 

"Well, maybe he just didn't have anywhere else to stay," Keolah suggested. 

"He could have stayed here at the inn." 

"Suppose," Keolah said. "Well, I'll look into it. I really hope there's a reward for it, though." 

She left the inn and headed out into the darkened streets to see what she could find out, and more importantly, to collect some alchemical ingredients. Deathbells were growing all over the place around here. Eventually, she wandered over toward a small ruin that must be the burned-down house in question. 

"Hmm," Keolah mused, stepping into the ruin and glancing about, though there wasn't much to see. Her Mage Light only illuminated the snow covering what was left of the place. "Well, it's the middle of the night and there's nothing weird going on here. I think it's safe to say the house is _not_ haunted or anything." 

The soft sound of humming could be heard from somewhere nearby. 

"I _said_ this place isn't haunted," Keolah repeated. 

The humming continued, even louder and more persistent than before. 

"My thane," Lydia said. "I think this place is haunted." 

Keolah groaned. "Not you, too." 

"You may wish to turn around," Lydia said. 

"Huh?" Keolah said, looking behind her to where the translucent blue figure of a young girl stood. "Oh. I guess the place is actually haunted after all. Hello there." 

"You aren't a stranger, are you?" the ghost girl said. "Father told me never to talk to strangers." 

"Well, that's just silly," Keolah said. "Everyone's a stranger to start off with. And it would be simply rude to ignore someone just because you don't know them. And how else would you get to know them?" 

"You're certainly strange," the ghost said, peering at her. "But I'm lonely and bored and Father isn't around." 

"Yeah," Keolah said. "Yeah, about that. Do you know what happened here?" 

"Let's play hide and seek!" the girl said. "If you can find me, I'll tell you who burned down the house! But you've got to find me before the sun comes up." She promptly disappeared before Keolah could respond. 

"Well, I guess we could do that, too..." Keolah said to the air. 

She wandered off, Lydia trailing along behind her and proceeded to spend the next few hours getting lost in the swamp in the dark. Lydia didn't look like she was having very much fun, but she kept her mouth shut and didn't complain. 

"I think I'm failing at the seeking part," Keolah muttered. "Next time, I should hide and let them seek..." 

Suddenly, she stumbled upon a woman who screamed and attacked her. Reflexively, Keolah slammed a fire bolt into her chest without even stopping to wonder who it was. Her assailant fell to the ground dead in a single blow, landing on top of a half-exhumed coffin. 

"What..." Keolah said, blinking. "What just happened here?" 

"You found me!" said the voice of the ghost girl. "Laelette was looking for me too. But I'm glad you found me first." 

"Oh," Keolah said dumbly. "Who's Laelette?" 

"Laelette burned down the house!" replied the ghost. 

A man carrying a torch suddenly ran up and exclaimed, "Laelette! Laelette is dead!" 

"Is that who this woman was?" Keolah said. "Well, she kind of attacked me out of the blue... You know what? I have no idea what's going on here anymore. Who _are_ you? No, wait, never mind, I don't think I actually care." 

"Laelette!" the man cried. "I thought she was going off to join the Stormcloaks, but it turns out she was a vampire! And she was supposed to meet with Alva the night she disappeared, but I'm sure Alva had nothing to do with it." 

"A vampire?" Keolah said, raising an eyebrow, then looked over to the corpse and bent down to loot it. "I could use some more vampire dust..." 

Ignoring the man's babbling, Keolah went back toward the illuminated buildings wearily. Maybe she should have just gotten some sleep instead. As she walked through the center of town, she passed a robed man who stopped to look at her. 

"If you're going to accuse me of sacrificing babies, you can save your breath!" the man snapped. 

"Uh, I don't even know who you are," Keolah said. "You're a mage, right? So am I. I'm not going to accuse you of anything, but you realize that denying things that loudly and specifically makes us look bad and doesn't really convince anyone, right? Oh, never mind, I've got things to do. Can you point out which house belongs to Alva for me, please?" 

The mage looked at her in puzzlement and pointed to the building to the left. "It's that one right there." 

"Right, thanks," Keolah said, and went over to the door. "Hmm, locked. Let's see if I can do anything about that." 

"You know I can still see you, right?" the mage said. 

"No, no, this isn't going to work, this lock is too hard," Keolah said. "I'll just need to use excessive force." 

She put her hands together and slammed a bolt of fire into the flimsy wooden door, sending splinters of flaming wood flying everywhere. 

"What are you doing!?" exclaimed the mage. 

Keolah ignored him and charged inside, Lydia coming in behind her. As she stepped into the building, something swirly and red struck her, and she staggered for a moment in surprise, feeling drained and weak. Steadying herself, she let forth several bursts of fire at random. Some of them must have hit something, as moments later, she was no longer being attacked. Behind her, Lydia's sword was red with blood as she stood over the body of a Nord man, and also with reflected fire light from the burning building. 

"I'm not infected, am I?" Keolah wondered aloud. "I hope I'm not infected." 

"I do not know, my thane, but--" 

"Well, I don't feel strange, so I guess I'm not," Keolah concluded. 

"My thane--" Lydia tried to put in urgently. 

"In hindsight, it might have been a better idea to invade the vampire's house during the day instead of at night," Keolah mused. 

"The house--" 

"Well, guess I'll collect some more vampire dust and look for loot." 

"You set the house on fire!" Lydia exclaimed. 

Keolah blinked up at the smoldering and crackling wood, and said, "Oops." 

She hurriedly made for the door, hoping that any valuables in the building were fireproof. And she hadn't seen a jail around here, so she hoped they weren't going to arrest her for semi-accidental arson again. Or maybe she just hadn't noticed it. She wasn't really paying attention. 

"By the Divines, what is going on here?" demanded an old woman standing in the street outside the building, flanked by the mage from before and several guards. So much for the hope of not being arrested. 

"You set the whole house on fire!" the mage said, then turned to the old woman. "My jarl, perhaps she was the one who burned down the other house as well!" 

"I wasn't even in town yet!" Keolah protested. 

"But you set _this_ house on fire," the old woman, presumably the jarl, said. 

"I can unset it too!" Keolah said, raising her hands and channeling an ice spell at the place to put out the flames. 

"A bit late for that," Lydia commented quietly. 

"And what of the people inside?" the jarl asked, narrowing her eyes at her. 

"Uh... She was a vampire!" Keolah said. 

"Do you have any proof of this?" 

"Not... exactly?" Keolah said. 

"She attacked my thane with a draining ability," Lydia helpfully put in. 

"But were her eyes glowing?" the jarl asked. "If she was really a vampire, her eyes should have been glowing." 

"You know, I was a bit busy paying attention to _not dying_ to care whether her eyes glowed or not!" Keolah said. "Alright, well, maybe she kept a journal around conveniently documenting her nefarious deeds." 

"You burned the house down," Lydia reminded her. 

"Oh, just hold on and let me take a look," Keolah said, waving a hand absently and turning back to the half-burnt house. 

In the back of what was left of the building, she found a staircase leading down to a basement that was still mostly intact. A coffin sat in the center of the room, and a book lay inside the coffin. Keolah snatched it up and strode out to present it to the jarl without even glancing at it. 

"There's a coffin in the basement," Keolah said. "And _this_ surely documents her evil deeds." 

"You didn't even look at it, my thane," Lydia said. "For all you know, it could be a romance novel." 

Keolah glared at her. 

The jarl opened up the book and glanced through it, and a guard held up a torch to provide light to read by. "Fortunately for you, your assumption was correct. Alva was, indeed, a vampire. Worse, she was working for a master vampire named Movarth. If you will go and direct your destructive magic toward Movarth, I will... dismiss your role in this gratuitous property damage. This time." 

"Is there a reward?" Keolah asked. 

The jarl sighed. "Fine. There will be some septims for your pockets as well. If you promise to never use destruction magic in Morthal again." 

"Oh, alright, if you insist," Keolah said with a sigh. "Can I do it in the morning? I'm awfully tired and I'd rather not fight another vampire at night." 

"Very well." 

Keolah headed for the inn to get some sleep, and Lydia followed gratefully. Come morning, feeling much more rested and having slept in a bit longer than she'd intended, she went back out to see the jarl again. 

"Are you ready to hunt down Movarth?" the jarl asked. 

"Yeah, sure," Keolah said. "Do you know where he is?" 

"I'll mark it on your map," the jarl said. "Alva's journal pinpointed his location." 

Lydia put in, "It might be better if you sent someone to escort us to the entrance instead." 

The jarl sighed. "Fine." 

A Nord man showed them to the entrance to a nearby cave, not very far into the swamp, but definitely far enough for Keolah to have become hopelessly lost on her own and likely to have spent the entire day searching for the place. 

"Oh, good, it's a cave," Keolah said. "I don't need to worry about burning _these_ down." 

"Just causing cave-ins," Lydia said. 

"That was only once!" Keolah protested. 

Keolah went through the cave and set on fire anything that moved, while Lydia very carefully tried to stay firmly behind her where it was safe, watching her back. 

"You know, I expected this to be harder," Keolah commented as she collected the belongings of the master vampire she assumed was Movarth. "But it turns out vampires just burn really well. Let's see what sort of treasure these bloodsuckers have got, shall we, Lydia?" 

"Yes, my thane," Lydia said, shoving loot into her bag reluctantly. 

Keolah picked up a white crystal prism out of the chest in a small cave off of the dining area. _A new hand touches the beacon,_ echoed a voice in her head. 

"Huh?" Keolah said, almost dropping the object in surprise. 

_There is a darkness in my temple. Go to Mount Kilkreath and be the instrument of my cleansing light._

"Um..." Keolah said uncertainly. "I don't know about this." 

_You will hear me and obey!_

"You're a voice in my head!" Keolah argued. "How do I know I'm not going insane?" 

"My thane, are you... feeling well?" Lydia asked. 

"I'm just arguing with the voice in my head," Keolah said. 

"I see..." Lydia said. 

There was one last vampire in the cave system, who burned up quite nicely, before Keolah finished up clearing out the place of its valuables and headed back to Morthal. She was feeling a little queasy after having gone through that nasty place. Fortunately, their escort had waited for them to lead them back. Unfortunately, Keolah insisted on collecting every fungal pod and deathbell along the way, and caught a few butterflies and a dragonfly. 

Keolah returned to the jarl's hall and said, "Your vampire problems are over." 

"By the Divines, I didn't think you could do it," the jarl said. 

"What, did you just send me in there hoping they'd kill me?" Keolah said. 

"It was certainly a possibility..." the jarl admitted. "Although with your fire magic you at least had a good chance of softening them up a bit first." 

Keolah smirked. "Have some faith in me, my jarl. If it involves destroying something, I'm _very_ good at that." 

"So I see," the jarl said. "Here is your reward, then." She handed her a bag of coins. "Now, if you avoid destroying the wrong things and make yourself useful around here, I might even make you my thane." 

"I'm already thane of Whiterun," Keolah said. 

"You can never have too many titles," the jarl said. "And if it gives you incentive to help rather than harm my hold, so much the better." 

"Maybe later," Keolah said. "I've got things to do, places to go, people to kill, treasure to collect... Bye now." 


	16. The Legendary Horn of Whatsisname

"My thane, I believe the entrance to the ruined tomb is over here," Lydia said. 

Keolah caught another butterfly and said, "Alright, just a moment. Dear me, there's a lot of butterflies here!" 

"I'll keep an eye out in case there are more of those bandits we killed when we arrived." 

Several butterflies and a few deathbells later, Keolah was finally ready to descend into the ruins of Ustengrav. At least, she assumed it was Ustengrav, and Lydia assured her that it was probably the right place. They'd only gotten a little lost trudging through the swamp to get here, but the small camp of bandits outside the entrance made it pretty clear there was at least something here. 

"A lot of dead bandits," Keolah murmured, stepping over corpses and casting a light spell on the way in. She spotted movement further down in the cave and shot off some fire bolts. "And a couple live ones." 

"Do you typically open fire before determining whether or not someone is hostile, my thane?" Lydia asked. 

"Would you like to give them a chance to shoot at us first?" Keolah said, walking over to where their corpses lay. "Besides, they're wearing black robes. That means they're mages. _Bad_ mages." 

"You couldn't tell that from over there," Lydia pointed out. 

"All things considered, I'm generally going to assume people I run into who aren't in a town or just strolling down the road, are hostile," Keolah said. "Because the vast majority of the time, they seem to be." 

"As you say, my thane." 

Keolah peered about the cavern. There was a small camp where some of the bandits had set up, but after collecting their valuables, she didn't see any other way out of the cave. "Huh, I expected there to be more to this place." 

"There's a tunnel leading off to the side here, my thane." 

"Oh, right," Keolah said, and went over to the passageway Lydia indicated. "What do you want to bet there will be draugr down here?" 

"I would imagine that's likely, my thane." 

Unsurprisingly, there were indeed a number of draugr infesting the tomb. They fought their way down through the ruins, Keolah incinerinating many of them and Lydia shooting the remainder with her bow. 

Keolah stepped on a pressure plate, and jets of fire burst from the floor beneath her feet. "Gah!" she cried, tumbling out of the way and trying to bat the fire out, then remembering she could cast ice spells and cast one on herself. "Oh great, now I'm just half frozen." She cast a fire spell to warm herself up, and almost set herself on fire again. 

"Are you alright, my thane?" Lydia asked. 

"Now I know why you guys get so annoyed when I accidentally hit you with my spells," Keolah muttered, casting a healing spell on herself. "That smarts." 

"I would assume so, given how that many of the creatures you hit with your spells die immediately," Lydia said. 

A bit further on, they came to a large cavern, possibly the same one but Keolah was already thoroughly lost. The place was crisscrossed by walkways arching through the air, making her very nervous. 

"Best be careful here," Keolah said. "It's a long way down." She crept out down the walkway, practically clinging to the stone as she went in paranoia. "Say, that looks like a Word Wall over there!" 

"How can you tell?" Lydia said dubiously. "Can you even see that far?" 

"Um... it's the right general shape? Let's try to get over there for a closer look!" 

After combusting a few skeletons on the way down, Keolah scrambled from ledge to ledge, suddenly no longer afraid of heights. After searching around the lower level, she came upon the semi-circular stone, and it was indeed a Word Wall. One runed word glowed in blue and wormed itself into her mind and soul. 

"Huh," Keolah said. "This word means 'Fade', apparently. I have no idea what that's even supposed to do, though." 

"Perhaps it makes you invisible?" Lydia suggested. 

"Dunno," Keolah shrugged. She hopped into the pool by the Word Wall and strode over toward the waterfall. 

"What are you doing, my thane?" 

"Checking behind the waterfall," Keolah replied. "There's _always_ goodies behind the waterfall." 

"I don't think--" 

"Aha!" Keolah called, emerging soaked on the other side of the wall of water. "There's a chest back here!" 

Keolah collected up the treasure, passed back through the waterfall and handed it off to Lydia, then tried to dry herself off with a fire spell, to marginal success. 

"I haven't seen any sign of what the Greybeards sent me to look for, though," Keolah said. "I wonder if this is even the right place." 

"I have no idea, my thane," Lydia said. 

"Oh well, let's keep looking, maybe we missed something," Keolah said. 

As she turned to find a way out of the cavern, a film of red crossed her vision for a moment, and a strange hunger overcame her. 

"Huh, maybe I forgot to eat dinner," Keolah muttered, frowning. 

"You do that frequently, my thane," Lydia said. 

"Let's stop for a moment and have a bite before moving on," Keolah said. "It doesn't look like there's anything trying to kill us immediately here." 

They sat down and pulled out some bread and cheese to eat, and Keolah swallowed it dutifully. It was dry, and she was thirsty, but this didn't seem to be quite what she was starting to crave. When she got back to Whiterun, she should swipe some more of the Companions' sweetrolls, she thought. 

After finishing up their meal, they wandered around the area searching for anything they might have missed, and crossed another stone bridge into a chamber with three small pillars jutting out of the floor, with three gates blocking the passage leading onward. When Keolah got close to one of them, it lit up in red, and one of the three gates clattered open. 

"Hmm, what's this now?" Keolah wondered, stepping forward to examine the pillars more closely. As she approached each one, they glowed red as well, and the one behind her stopped glowing. "Hmm, say, Lydia, could you stand by this one here?" 

"Yes, my thane," Lydia said, and took a position next to the stone. 

When Keolah moved away from that pillar, it stopped glowing even though Lydia was right next to it. Grumbling, Keolah walked back over to it and poked at it as it lit up again. "Why isn't it working for you?" 

"I do not know, my thane," Lydia said. "Perhaps it's because I'm not Dragonborn?" 

"Why in Talos' name would the ancient Nords have made a gate only a Dragonborn could open?" Keolah said, rolling her eyes and sighing. "Alright, maybe if I start here and run really fast, I'll be able to get through the gates before they close!" 

Keolah tried that a couple times, but even sprinting as fast as she could manage, she slammed her face into the first gate shutting on her just as she got to it. There wasn't any way she was going to manage it like this. 

"Okay, this isn't working," Keolah muttered, rubbing her nose and walking back to where Lydia was waiting. 

"Do you have any spells to move faster or something, my thane?" Lydia asked. 

"No..." Keolah said, musing. "Wait, I know a Shout to move faster!" She aimed in the general direction of the gate, and shouted, " _WULD!_ " She barrelled forward, and ran into one of the pillars, doubling over it painfully. "Umph..." 

Lydia took a seat by the stone she was at and watched as Keolah tried and failed at that a few more times. Finally, after getting stuck between the gates several times, she managed to get through, and the gates remained open. 

"Okay, Lydia, you can come through now it looks like," Keolah called. "Bah, who designed this thing, anyway? Stupid dead Nords and their stupid puzzles." 

Lydia caught up with her, and they continued on. "I've got a bad feeling about this," Lydia commented. 

"Oh, don't say things like that," Keolah said. "Something bad _always_ happens if someone says they have a bad feeling." 

"I would assume the likelihood of something bad happening to be the cause, rather than the effect, my thane." 

"I-- Don't argue logic with me!" Keolah replied with a smirk. 

Flames suddenly burst forth from the floor beneath their feet. 

"And don't say you told me so, either," Keolah said, rushing ahead to get past the traps and hardly pausing to roast a few spiders. "And how did these spiders even get in here? And what do they _eat_? Where did these corpses come from?" 

She let her ranting taper off into a low grumble and burnt through the webs blocking the corridor leading further on. The passage opened into a chamber with a stone walkway leading between two pools of water. A rumbling sound echoed for a moment, and the water rippled and splashed, and what looked at first glance like enormous claws rose out of the water. 

"Ahhh!" Keolah cried. "Crab monster!" She shot a firebolt at the giant claws. 

"My thane," Lydia said gently. "It's just stone." 

"Stone crab monster!" Keolah exclaimed, firing off more spells at the seemingly impervious construction. 

"They... aren't attacking us, my thane," Lydia said. 

Keolah blinked for a moment and stared at the hapless bit of architecture she'd been assaulting, and said, "Oh." 

She walked up to the altar at the far end of the chamber and found, rather than any treasure, there was a note sitting waiting for her. Scowling, she snatched it up and read it. 

"Someone... wants me to meet them in the attic room at the inn in Riverwood," Keolah said, then crumbled the note. "And _how did they even get in here?_ " 

"The horn isn't here, then?" Lydia asked. 

"The horn isn't here!" Keolah said. "Bah! Oh well, at least I learned a new word." 

A door behind the altar opened into a room which contained enough treasure to appease her for the moment, as well as another passage. It lead out through a door and to a blank wall with a lever beside it. Upon pulling the lever, the wall slid open, revealing the way to a room that looked familiar from earlier in the tomb. 

"Hmm..." Keolah said. "Say... maybe that's how our horn-thief got in there. They came in through the back door!" 

"But they'd have needed to pull the lever on the other side to get in," Lydia said. 

"I don't know how they did it, but they _certainly_ didn't get past that stupid puzzle," Keolah said. 

"I see your point," Lydia said. 

They made their way out of the tomb and into the open, clear air again. It was well past dark, and Lydia was yawning, although Keolah wasn't really tired herself. 

"We should probably rest, my thane," Lydia said. "Make camp here, or try to make it back to Morthal?" 

"I'm not tired," Keolah said. 

"Really?" Lydia said. "We were up awfully late last night and didn't get much sleep." 

Keolah shrugged. "I could keep going for hours yet. You can take a nap here if you want and I'll keep watch and roast anything that bothers us." 

"As you say, my thane." Lydia went over and brushed off one of the bandits' bedrolls and lay down to rest for a while. 

After an hour's rest, they continued on back south. It was a lovely night for target practice on deer, and one tree that Keolah thought was a deer. It was nearly dawn by the time they arrived back in Morthal and headed into the inn. 

"Are you feeling alright?" asked the innkeeper. "You don't look so good." 

"I'm fine," Keolah said, waving off her concern. "You're up awfully late." 

"I just woke up," the innkeeper said. "Were you looking for a room or breakfast?" 

"A room is fine," Keolah said. "We have lots of venison." 

"And rabbit, and goat..." Lydia added. "And some vegetables you picked from some farmer's field..." 

Keolah paid for the room and headed in, yawning and flopping down on the bed. Now her weariness was finally catching up to her, and her strength rapidly diminishing. She felt like she could just sleep the entire day away, and drifted off before she knew it. 

It was late afternoon when she woke, and after eating an obligatory dinner, she and Lydia set out for Whiterun. She mostly let Lydia point the way and managed not to get _too_ lost, although they took a few wrong turns and almost ran afoul of giants. 

"Was that a flying mammoth?" Keolah wondered, staring at the air where she thought she'd seen it. 

"A flying mammoth?" Lydia asked dubiously. 

"Yeah," Keolah said. "Did you see that too, or am I just hallucinating?" 

"There was no flying mammoth." 

"Okay, I'm just hallucinating then. Good to know." 

As they came within sight of Whiterun, the sun setting behind them, Keolah shuddered involuntarily for a moment as a haze of blood filled her vision for a moment. She realized that she hadn't been feeling so well today, but it was better now. Come to think, she hadn't been feeling all that well in general ever since leaving the vampire cave, but she'd been trying to ignore it. But there was only so far even she could remain oblivious. 

"Lydia," Keolah began, licking her lips absently. "What would you do if I were to become a vampire? Hypothetically speaking." 

"My thane?" Lydia said. "You weren't infected back at Morthal were you?" 

"No, of course not," Keolah said quickly. 

Lydia scowled. "We should hurry back to town. We might still be able to cure you." 

"I said I'm fine," Keolah insisted, then bit her lip after a moment. "Sorry for yelling at you." 

"It is no trouble, my thane," Lydia replied. "I am simply concerned for your wellbeing." 

"Well," Keolah said shaking her head and ignoring the issue. "Why don't we stop in at Whiterun and drop off some stuff, and then continue on to Riverwood? It's still early, after all." 

Fortunately it was early enough that the shops were still open so that they could sell much of the loot Lydia had hauled out of the tomb. 

"Why wouldn't anyone in Morthal buy this stuff?" Keolah wondered. "Instead we had to haul a pile of miscellaneous weapons and crap all the way back here!" 

"You mean _I_ had to haul it, my thane," Lydia said with a smirk. 

"Yeah, yeah," Keolah said. 

"And why the troll skull?" Lydia wondered. 

"I thought it would look nice in my house," Keolah said. 

Lydia worked up her face as she peered at the ugly thing, and said evenly, "As you say, my thane." 

After a quick dinner in Breezehome, they headed out from Whiterun, heading south for Riverwood, catching luna moths and torchbugs all the way. 

"Come to think," Keolah commented as they walked into Riverwood, peering at the Sleeping Giant Inn. "This inn doesn't even _have_ an attic." 

"So it would appear," Lydia said. 

They headed inside, and Keolah approached the middle-aged woman who ran the inn and said, "Hey. Mysterious lady who was looking for information on dragons a while back. I'd like to rent your non-existent attic room." 

Delphine sighed and rolled her eyes, and said, "Not so loud, would you?" 

"If you wanted secrecy, you could be a little less bloody cryptic," Keolah replied. 

"Wouldn't that be _less_ secretive, my thane?" Lydia said. 

"Whatever," Keolah said. 

"So I guess you're supposed the Dragonborn, then," Delphine said, rubbing her forehead. "Fine then. Come on, we need to talk." Delphine led them to a side room, and then down into a secret room hidden below the inn. "The Greybeards sent you to find the horn, did they? Well, here it is, this is what you're looking for, I believe." She handed Keolah the horn. 

"Oh, right, thanks," Keolah said, passing it off to Lydia to carry. 

"At least now I can be sure that the Greybeards think you're Dragonborn, if nothing else," Delphine says. "And that you might not just be a Thalmor plant. Although I'd think a Thalmor plant might be a little less... inept." 

"Hey, I'm very ept!" Keolah protested. "Mostly at destroying things, though..." She scowled. "But seriously, Thalmor? You know, just because I'm an Altmer doesn't mean I'm with the Thalmor, or even care to offer them the least amount of affection, respect, or loyalty." 

"I'm still not convinced that you're Dragonborn, though," Delphine said, folding her arms across her chest. 

" _FUS!_ " Keolah shouted, sending a quill, parchment, and books flying. 

"That proves nothing," Delphine said. "Can you kill a dragon and absorb its soul?" 

"Well, yeah," Keolah said. "At least I assume that's what I'm doing. I don't really have anything to compare it to, though, but I have no reason to think otherwise." 

"Then I want you to come kill a dragon with me at an old burial mound near Kynesgrove," Delphine said. 

"With you?" Keolah said, raising an eyebrow. "What are you going to do, hit it with a broom?" 

Delphine snorted. "I'll have you know I was a skilled warrior in my youth, and I haven't forgotten a thing." 

"I'll take your word on that," Keolah said. "But why there? Wherever that is." 

"I have reason to believe that the dragons are coming back to life," Delphine said. 

"You mean they're like, undead dragons or something?" Keolah said, making a face and groaning. "Ugh, like draugr aren't bad enough. Doesn't anything ever stay dead around here?" 

"If you kill them, you'll absorb their souls and prevent them from coming back to life," Delphine said. 

"Oh, good," Keolah said. "I'd hate to think I'd have to run around killing the same dozen dragons over and over, like hitting a dog over the muzzle with a scroll whenever it pees on the floor." 

"I... That..." Delphine said, then shook her head and put her face in her hands. "Just meet me at Kynesgrove and we can deal with this." 

"Sure thing," Keolah said. "Where's Kynesgrove?" She slid her map across the table, and Delphine marked the location. 

"Perhaps it would be better to travel together," Lydia suggested. 

Delphine turned and scowled at her for that suggestion. "I'm sure you can find the way." 

"You don't know my thane very well," Lydia replied. "If you want her to get to the place in time to stop this dragon, you're going to need to make sure she doesn't get lost or wander off at some distraction or another." 

"Hey, I'm right here, you know," Keolah said. "Um, not that I can really argue with that assessment." 

Delphine sighed. "Fine, we'll set out in the morning, then." 


End file.
